It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

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

Many admire, few know.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

When I was about thirteen, the library was going to get ‚Calculus for the Practical Man.‘ By this time I knew, from reading the encyclopedia, that calculus was an important and interesting subject, and I ought to learn it.

Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.

We can continue to learn generation after generation and now is time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way because we are intelligent enough, but we are not loving enough as a species.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

You’ll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

Mastery, I learned, was not something genetic, or for a lucky few. It is something we can all attain if get rid of some misconceptions and gain clarity as to the required path.

Bad men are full of repentance.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

I don’t want to look sloppy, because then I feel sloppy.

You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

I have done one thing that I think is a contribution: I helped Buddhist science and modern science combine. No other Buddhist has done that. Other lamas, I don’t think they ever pay attention to modern science. Since my childhood, I have a keen interest.

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

The day you stop doing the small things is the day you think you’re above everybody else.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.

I believe time wounds all heels.

From the moment I open my eyes, I’m trying to free my body. I’m trying to get looser, more flexible, to gain control. Movement is medicine to me.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

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

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

I was becoming post-ideological.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.