It is better to be alone than in bad company.

What one has to do usually can be done.

Writing is a solitary experience. I’m extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It’s so intimate, I can’t even share it with my wife.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words.

Power is competence.

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

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

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

No one can live without relationship. You may withdraw into the mountains, become a monk, a sannyasi, wander off into the desert by yourself, but you are related. You cannot escape from that absolute fact. You cannot exist in isolation.

Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

The presence of passion within you is the greatest gift you can receive. Treat it as a miracle.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

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

There are certain shades of limelight that can wreck a girl’s complexion.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

If you choose to do something, attack it. You can hate me, but there’s one thing you can’t say about me – that I didn’t attack it.

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

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

I have trouble with letting go. That’s my problem.

I am a bit of a solitude person – a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don’t have any major friendships or relationships with people.

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

The moment someone asks you to do something you don’t have the time or inclination to do is fraught with vulnerability.

The wish for healing has always been half of health.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

I always believe that there should come a time when your energy, speed, stamina should combine well with your brains.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

Ego is only fine when it is working for your motivation.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

I’m just looking to learn, grow, stay focused, and become a better fighter and a better athlete.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

Nothing will work unless you do.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.