I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

I know I want to always do the best I can.

Never be lucid, never state, if you would be regarded great.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

I try to teach my heart not to want things it can’t have.

I am invariably late for appointments – sometimes as much as two hours. I’ve tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

I’m an emotional person.

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing, but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

We deem those happy who from the experience of life have learnt to bear its ills without being overcome by them.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

I could never give relationship advice to anybody!

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

I’m an emotional person. Sometimes I can’t help it.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

The self is hateful.

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

What a terrible thing to have lost one’s mind. Or not to have a mind at all. How true that is.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

My freshman and sophomore years in high school, I spent a lot of time trying to get back on the right track. I was arrested multiple times by the time I was 16, so I had a little harder time trying to adjust like a lot of us do in high school.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

You know, most people really don’t know me.

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

We should purify our innate well of contentment – what a wonderful expression – and then external things will be in harmony with us.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

You are victors, not victims!

You fail only if you stop writing.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

I try not to go around looking like a hag.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

Your Highest Self is not just an idea that sounds lofty and spiritual. It is a way of being. It is the very first principle that you must come to understand and embrace as you move toward attracting to you that which you want and need for this parenthesis in eternity that you know as your life.

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it’s a good indication of what you’re made of.

You have freedom when you’re easy in your harness.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Aim for the highest.

When I step forward on the floor, I have the confidence that I’m the best player playing that night and that I am the most prepared at what I need to be doing.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.