I’m actually a very honest person, and sometimes I end up like, ‚Man, I said too much.‘ It’s hard for me not to tell the truth when you ask me.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

The ego is nothing other than the focus of conscious attention.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

I think I have a dualistic nature.

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

I have to be in tune. All the time. I have to be in tune with my husband, where he is, how he’s feeling. I have to be in tune with where my family is.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.

Parents and teachers, learn to listen, then listen to learn from children.

Don’t ever call a guy first. The thing they want the most is whatever they can’t have. It sounds really juvenile, but it works.

Back, you know, a few generations ago, people didn’t have a way to share information and express their opinions efficiently to a lot of people. But now they do. Right now, with social networks and other tools on the Internet, all of these 500 million people have a way to say what they’re thinking and have their voice be heard.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

When it comes to gossip, I have to readily admit men are as guilty as women.

People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people – and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

I very rarely think in words at all. A thought comes, and I may try to express it in words afterwards.

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.

It’s considered acceptable in our culture to approach perfect strangers, as often or not who may be in extremis, and evangelise. I don’t see why that’s considered a normal thing.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

We must distinguish between speaking to deceive and being silent to be reserved.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

No man means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous.

I don’t write letters anymore.

The more you know the less you need to say.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

I’m not a marketing person. I don’t ask myself questions. I go by instinct.

People need good lies. There are too many bad ones.

Human language appears to be a unique phenomenon, without significant analogue in the animal world.

This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification.

Yes, I, well, when I write, as often as I can, I try to write as if I’m talking to people. It doesn’t always work, and one shouldn’t always try it, but I try and write as if I am talking, and trying to engage the reader in conversation.

One must steer, not talk.

If you can’t move and talk to people that you see, it’s not really my scene.

In the last analysis, what we are communicates far more eloquently than anything we say or do.

There are women who can make you feel more with their bodies and their souls, but these are the exact women who will turn the knife into you right in front of the crowd. Of course, I expect this, but the knife still cuts.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation between you and God.

The problem with EMMA is that it is cost prohibitive for the small investors who were supposed to benefit from the new transparency.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

He who knows others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

There is nothing so terrible as activity without insight.

If I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn’t have been worth the Nobel Prize.