Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and… the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.

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.

Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power.

I’ve always liked being busy. If I have nothing to do for a week, it just makes me mad.

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

Pride is an independent, me-oriented spirit. It makes people arrogant, rude and hard to get along with. When our heart is prideful, we don’t give God the credit and we mistreat people, looking down on them and thinking we deserve what we have.

What it’s like to be me? You know, it’s good to be me. My life is good.

Moderation is the key so I work certain amount of time and then I take a certain amount of time off.

It was one of those evenings when men feel that truth, goodness and beauty are one. In the morning, when they commit their discovery to paper, when others read it written there, it looks wholly ridiculous.

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.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

I’m not very ambitious at all.

When I write, when I’m going hot, I don’t want to write more than four hours in a row. After that, you’re pushing it.

Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.

No, I’m not a French designer either. I’m from nowhere. I’m a European, old European is all I am.

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?

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

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

I am not saying I am the best manager in the world. But I’m quite good.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

The writer must earn money in order to be able to live and to write, but he must by no means live and write for the purpose of making money.

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It’s a death trap.

When you’re in hell, you forget how great you really are because you’re suffering and you forget the great things you’ve done.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

I have made a few mistakes early on that I admit myself, and there have been times when I have gone over the top and done things that you shouldn’t do in international cricket, but that’s how you learn.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you.

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages.

To wear your heart on your sleeve isn’t a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where it functions best.

Tell me what you like and I’ll tell you what you are.

We must use time creatively.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

I was never particularly fond of my voice.

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

The Canteen Boy, the reason you feel bad for him and you can laugh is because he, and I guess a lot of my characters, they don’t notice they’re getting made fun of. So they’ll say something back that’s not that great a quip, but in their mind they won the argument.

We feel and know that we are eternal.

I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

When I think over what I have said, I envy dumb people.