Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

I’m giving all that I have in this life. I’m opening up my notebook, and I’m saying everything in there out loud.

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.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

In one day, I have times where I’m feeling great, I feel like I love my life, and then 2:30 rolls around and I’m the angriest man alive. My wife sees it.

I look like a casual, laid-back guy, but it’s like a circus in my head.

My future is righteousness.

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

I am in my own head most of the time.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

How people themselves perceive what they are doing is not a question that interests me.

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

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

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

Coaching wouldn’t be for me. No, certainly not.

Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‚Ego‘.

I think I have a dualistic nature.

A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

I’m not looking to freak people out – eating rodents or bugs. I don’t do that anymore.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

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.

I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can’t knock it.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

We are second-hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences, and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves: nothing original, pristine, clear.

I never saw myself as a folk singer.

I don’t think I get that upset over things.

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.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

I’ve done the bad-boy thing. It was fun for a good three months. But the thing about bad boys is, you have to keep in mind, you’re never gonna marry a bad boy.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

I’m not perfect.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, such as getting my girlfriend pregnant when I was 23 and the way I handled that.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.