Indeed, it is as important to learn how to receive a blessing as it is to be willing to give one.

Life well spent is long.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

Little by little, not by making big promises, I need to be calmer, read more, spend more time with my loved ones, and be more mindful about nature and environment.

Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

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.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his ‚basic rights.‘

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation.

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

The funny thing is people won’t let me pay for things. I’ll be in a restaurant and the manager will say, ‚Oh no, it’s on the house.‘

I believe God’s keeping the records, and I believe you will be rewarded even in this life. Somehow, some way, God will make it up to you. It may be He protected you from an accident you never knew. You can’t give God something without God giving you more in return, whether it’s peace or joy or satisfaction.

Stay humble and be concerned for the less fortunate.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

There comes a time when people get tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amid the piercing chill of an alpine November.

I’m one of them guys that tries to make everything the best of the best, so sometimes I’m out of control with it.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

Die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigor and passion.

I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.

I’ve always believed in God. I also think that’s the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment, the capacity to believe, or at some point in your life, when you’re in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself, you simply make an agreement.

Believing in progress does not mean believing that any progress has yet been made.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

It is necessary to help others, not only in our prayers, but in our daily lives. If we find we cannot help others, the least we can do is to desist from harming them.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‚Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.‘

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.

While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die.

Everybody likes a compliment.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

Education is what you learn after you leave school.

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.

My mother never cursed at home; my father never cursed at home. My father didn’t drink. Even though we were poor, we would say a blessing over the table. So that’s who I am.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.