I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

In the consciousness of the truth he has perceived, man now sees everywhere only the awfulness or the absurdity of existence and loathing seizes him.

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!

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

We spend so much time sublimatin‘, thinkin‘ about, ‚What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?‘

I’ve never been one to sit back and go, ‚I’d better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don’t want to lose them.‘

If you don’t live your life, then who 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.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

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

I’m not the most patient of people.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

We all have done something unethical.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

When in doubt tell the truth.

It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

I’m a spokesman for myself. It just so happens that there’s a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I’m just as confused as most people. I don’t have the answers for anything.

Never complain and never explain.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

People may think I’m trying something new by telling stories, but they’re just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That’s what I do.

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

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I’m taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

For me, there is no such thing as a negative experience.

For an author, the nice characters aren’t much fun. What you want are the screwed up characters. You know, the characters that are constantly wondering if what they are doing is the right thing, characters that are not only screwed up but are self-tapping screws. They’re doing it for themselves.

I need one of those baby monitors from my subconscious to my consciousness so I can know what the hell I’m really thinking about.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

I don’t consider myself to be that credulous.

Over the years I’ve learned how to lock myself up in a prison of hope, knowing that God has nothing but His best planned for me. He promised me things concerning my ministry and my life.

You can be happy where you are.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

If you want to be a good strategist, you can never just go off a principle you read in a book. You need to adapt what you do to the situation; no rule of thumb is true all the time.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.