If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.

Morality arose largely as an empirical defence of the individual and society. Ever since intelligent beings began to be in contact, and consequently in friction, they have felt the need to guard themselves against each other’s encroachments.

I think I hate cynicism more than anything else. It’s the curse of our age, and I want to avoid it at all costs.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

I don’t think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress ‚suspects.‘

I’ve read a lot of books on the laws of attraction, and in my home, I have a big book on Muhammad Ali, which I’ve read because he is, like, a hero of mine, but other than that, no, I’m not a big reader.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don’t even get printed.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

The status quo sucks.

I am desperate for change – now – not in 8 years or 12 years, but right now.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

My upbringing was solid because of the people I had around me.

The good old days, when each idea had an owner, are gone forever.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

My education was the liberty I had to read indiscriminately and all the time, with my eyes hanging out.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

America is just downright mean.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.

Jiu Jitsu is a great workout both mentally and physically. You want to be strong for it and flexible for it.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

To assert in any case that a man must be absolutely cut off from society because he is absolutely evil amounts to saying that society is absolutely good, and no-one in his right mind will believe this today.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

I can analyze people’s intentions. Immediately. That’s just a warning. To everyone.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world.

I’ve had sleep paralysis.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.

I’m just looking to learn, grow, stay focused, and become a better fighter and a better athlete.

Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

I had slumps that lasted into the winter.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Conversion is a change of masters. Will we not do as much for our new master, the Lord Jesus, as we did once for our old tyrant lusts?

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

I wasn’t born a natural entrepreneur. I had to be trained.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable.