I’m not a god – I do bad things.

I was sure I’d set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth – that I hadn’t set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if ‚The Big Trail‘ had been a success and launched me as a star.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

We are sinful not only because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. The state in which we are is sinful, irrespective of guilt.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

I never looked at my mantel and envisioned an MVP trophy sitting there. This is pretty crazy.

What nourishes me also destroys me.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.

When you love and accept yourself, when you know who really cares about you, and when you learn from your mistakes, then you stop caring about what people who don’t know you think.

I don’t consider myself to be that credulous.

I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.

I hear my friends and my mom tell me I’m special, but honestly, I still don’t get it.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

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 more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

Be the chief but never the lord.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

There is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.

A man’s manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

The thing about the truth is, not a lot of people can handle it.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

I’m crazy, but I’m not too crazy.

Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form.

All through my writing life, I’ve had this impulse to write autobiographical works.

I’m perpetually lonely.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

I’m not in it for fame. I’ve been famous in the streets already.

Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.

Many people have an intense feeling about what they’re best at. Too often, they’re driven away from it by other people.

Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.

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.

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don’t want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.