If you listen through the screen of your desires, then you obviously listen to your own voice; you are listening to your own desires.

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

Many people in this world are still so identified with every thought that arises in their head. There is not the slightest space of awareness there.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

When it comes to our everyday habits, it’s important to ask: ‚Am I putting God first?‘

In one way, I suppose, I have been ‚in denial‘ for some time, knowingly burning the candle at both ends and finding that it often gives a lovely light.

I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

The utmost extent of man’s knowledge, is to know that he knows nothing.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

I will govern my life and thoughts as if the whole world were to see the one and read the other, for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God, who is the searcher of our hearts, all our privacies are open?

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Faith never makes a confession.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

What you are comes to you.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

My mami and papi love my music. They’re always listening to the radio waiting for one of my songs to come on. And when it does, they turn up the volume – and turn it back down when it’s over.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

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

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

Hell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

I was a thug.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

I put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don’t have any flaws.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.

I am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.