I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

The true artist is not proud: he unfortunately sees that art has no limits; he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and though he may be admired by others, he is sad not to have reached that point to which his better genius only appears as a distant, guiding sun.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

The answer I found is you stay away from the people who make fun of you, and you join these ad hoc groups who understand your craziness.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

The more you know the less you need to say.

Well, I screwed it up real good, didn’t I?

If you realize all the time what’s kind of wonderful – that is, if we expand our experience into wilder and wilder regions of experience – every once in a while, we have these integrations when everything’s pulled together into a unification, in which it turns out to be simpler than it looked before.

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

My public is growing up just as I am. After all, I’m not 19 anymore and if I stick with the sex bit, who will be paying to see me when I’m 50?

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

Before all else, be armed.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

I think everybody’s trying to get to a place in themselves where they conquer what they was afraid of; they achieve some of their life goals, kept their word about what they were trying to do.

One thing I hope I’ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am will never work in this town again.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

At 155, I will be the same animal, an even better animal.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?

Education is what you learn after you leave school.

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

I’m very picky; I’m never happy with anything. It’s so hard to give the record away and accept that you’re done.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

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.

I have the problems of, I must confess, old age.

Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

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.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

I think what’s important is for us to decipher what is honest and what is dishonest and be accepting of those things and not operating from fear.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

I can be a cruel person.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

I’m a whopping 5 foot 4 inches tall. I’m not going to get any taller.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody.

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

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

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.