Keeping an active mind has been vital to my survival, as has been maintaining a sense of humor.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

We want to do a lot of stuff; we’re not in great shape. We didn’t get a good night’s sleep. We’re a little depressed. Coffee solves all these problems in one delightful little cup.

I was very depressed when I was 19… I would go back to my apartment every day and I would just sit there. It was quiet and it was lonely. It was still. It was just my piano and myself. I had a television and I would leave it on all the time just to feel like somebody was hanging out with me.

I’m the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him.

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

Generally speaking, if a human being never shows anger, then I think something’s wrong. He’s not right in the brain.

The secret of being miserable is to have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation.

I understand that being able to appeal to the public and having an amazing sense of humour is not something that comes easy. It’s definitely a gift and for which I’m thankful.

Hearing voices no one else can hear isn’t a good sign, even in the wizarding world.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear.

Meditation is a great way to keep my body well-centered while juggling shooting schedules and recording sessions.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

To keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself.

To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.

‚Tis healthy to be sick sometimes.

When people need love and understanding and support the most is when they deserve it the least.

Boredom, anger, sadness, or fear are not ‚yours,‘ not personal. They are conditions of the human mind. They come and go. Nothing that comes and goes is you.

There’s certainly a side of me that isn’t completely… sane. Or completely ‚even‘ all the time. We all have our dark sides.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.

I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.

A Religion of Evolution: that, when all is said and done, is what Man needs ever more explicitly if he is to survive and ‚superlive,‘ as soon as he becomes conscious of his power to ultra-hominize himself and of his duty to do so.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Mind over mattress.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

Meditation helps me to calm down.

You have to listen very carefully and tell the truth if you are going to get a paranoid person to open up to you.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?

After the 9/11 apocalypse happened in New York City, people, particularly New Yorkers, who breathed in the ash, or saw the results of that, have a tendency to keep seeing echoes and having flashbacks to it.

I’ve 20,000 hours of clinical practice; you’re not naive after the first few thousand. I’ve helped people deal with things that most people can’t imagine.

I’ve had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

I go through a lot of depression, and I know other people do, too, but I have an outlet that so many people don’t. If you have that inside of you and can’t get it out, what do you do?

I have this really high priority on happiness and finding something to be happy about.

Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

It seems strange that bears, so fond of all sorts of flesh, running the risks of guns and fires and poison, should never attack men except in defense of their young. How easily and safely a bear could pick us up as we lie asleep! Only wolves and tigers seem to have learned to hunt man for food, and perhaps sharks and crocodiles.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

No, I’m not anguished and tormented.

I am particularly drawn to the form of meditation called Japa. I know it works.

Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable.

Encouragement to all women is – let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.

Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of.

Going to a therapist is not something you do when you’re growing up as a street kid in Toronto.

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.

If someone decides they’re not going to be happy, it’s not your problem. You don’t have to spend your time and energy trying to cheer up someone who has already decided to stay in a bad mood. Believe it or not, you can actually hurt people by playing into their self-pity.

I have quite a decent constitution in spite of all my abuse of it and my advanced years. I’m still quite robust.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

If there was an observer on Mars, they would probably be amazed that we have survived this long.