Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

When you learn about the teaching and the practice of another tradition, you always have a chance to understand your own teaching and practice.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‚our own life‘ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‚our own life‘ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

Overall there’s going to be things I’m not great at.

Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

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

Become slower in your journey through life. Practice yoga and meditation if you suffer from ‚hurry sickness.‘ Become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes. Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.

Humanity, you never had it to begin with.

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.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

God doesn’t love me any more or less because I had some work done on my face. You know, I prayed about it a long, long, long, long, long time, because there again, I wouldn’t want to do anything that I felt was going to be offensive to God.

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.

As you think, so shall you become.

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

I’m not good at talking about myself.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself.

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.

It’s dangerous to read the Internet about yourself when you’re me. Or when you’re anyone in the public eye.

I do believe in the old saying, ‚What does not kill you makes you stronger.‘ Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

Timidity makes a person modest. It makes him or her say, ‚I’m not worthy of being written up in the record of deeds in heaven or on earth.‘ Timidity keeps people from their good. They are afraid to say, ‚Yes, I deserve it.‘

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

You know, most people really don’t know me.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

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

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

I think I’ve got wiser.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

I think I have a dualistic nature.

You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly. You have losses that you never thought you’d experience. You have rejection and you have learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

Why am I a star? It can’t be because of looks.