Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

You know, it’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

When I was 50 years old, I actually decided to draw up a list of half a dozen things that I really hadn’t done very well, and I was going to make efforts to improve. One of them was skiing, and I really did become a very much better skier.

Things do not change; we change.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

To make headway, improve your head.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

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

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I’ll say that. Wonder and terror.

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

I’m not critic-proof, and I still take it personally, but I take it less personally now.

I never promise anything. I don’t promise anything to my mum. I don’t promise anything to the supporters.

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

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.

I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face. Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.

Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

True wealth is not of the pocket, but of the heart and of the mind.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

The more people rationalize cheating, the more it becomes a culture of dishonesty. And that can become a vicious, downward cycle. Because suddenly, if everyone else is cheating, you feel a need to cheat, too.

Let’s be honest. Canada wasn’t ever cool.

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!