Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

It’s always appealing to play a character that has to overcome himself as well as an obstacle. It makes the drama so much deeper.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people. The image of the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus‘ famous poem. She lifts her lamp and welcomes people to the golden shore, where they will not experience prejudice because of the color of their skin, the religious faith that they follow.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

You either make dust or eat dust.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks. And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

I am not promising that God will give you everything you want. There are times when we want things that God knows would not be good for us.

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.

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

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

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is choosing the kind of universe you exist in: is it helpful and supportive or hostile and unsupportive? Your answer to this question will make all the difference in terms of how you live your life and what kind of Divine assistance you attract.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

We are moving towards a world that is reordering itself and that may appear more ordered at some periods of time, but I see no sign that we are moving towards a world order in my definition of it – namely, a system which is accepted, which is internalized by the majority of the key participants.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

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

I do believe in self-help.

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.

One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it. Write the list or the schedule the night before, and then do what you said you would do. Life becomes much better when you do that.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they’re not trying to keep up with you.

You fail only if you stop writing.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger’s as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

I disagree with everything I used to say.

To me, if you’re trying to impress a girl, get a date, they’re gonna like that more because you’re a confident guy. That’s what it comes down to.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

Accountability breeds response-ability.

No poet or orator has ever existed who believed there was any better than himself.

There’s an inherent danger in letting people think that they have perfected something. When they believe they’ve ‚nailed it,‘ most people tend to sit back and rest on their laurels while countless others will be labouring furiously to better their work!

You cannot let where you are today cause you to get stuck. I’m going to be my best right now. That’s what faith is all about.

I think one’s feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

I let people fill in the blanks on their own. If they want to think about their ex, that’s fine. If they want to think about maybe who one of my exes is, then that’s fine. And it might not be right, because I’m the only one who knows what these songs are really about. It’s the one shred of privacy I have in the matter.

Martyrs do not underrate the body, they allow it to be elevated on the cross. In this they are at one with their antagonists.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

So the bodhisattva saves all beings, not by preaching sermons to them, but by showing them that they are delivered, they are liberated, by the act of not being able to stop changing.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.