My fate cannot be mastered; it can only be collaborated with and thereby, to some extent, directed. Nor am I the captain of my soul; I am only its noisiest passenger.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

There are many events in the womb of time, which will be delivered.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many great directors. Different styles, as well, like Gus Van Sant. He just does the casting and the milieu and let’s you do your thing, quietly. Bertolucci, who can talk to you about your internal world in quite a creative way or just say, ‚Well, put your hand over here.‘

The ‚soul‘ is one of the words you can use to talk about your innermost being, the essence of who you are.

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

In a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

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?

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.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

Man’s enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.

I’m not generally a sensitive person, but I tend to be more sensitive toward others and what they’re going through. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it’s the truth.

Diplomacy is listening to what the other guy needs. Preserving your own position, but listening to the other guy. You have to develop relationships with other people so when the tough times come, you can work together.

I’m not a genius. I need other people to get the perfect information. When we have this, we will decide to sign or sell a player.

Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and move with it. In that watching, you begin to understand the whole movement of thought and feeling. And out of this awareness comes silence.

To attain any assured knowledge about the soul is one of the most difficult things in the world.

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

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

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

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

Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.

God didn’t make me to make movies, flex muscles, buy gold. What you love the most becomes your God… If I never make another dollar, my life is complete.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us.

I don’t dabble and spend much mind or time dealing with, I don’t know, people’s perceptions of me. I truly don’t.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

My body is quite tiny, but a lot of the emotions I feel are pretty explosive. They have to come out.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

I’ve always felt quite singular, even as a child. That I must stay on track to keep my purpose.

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.

Part of me suspects that I’m a loser, and the other part of me thinks I’m God Almighty.

Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation.

I think if I did something in the pop world right now, it would be for Rihanna. I’d love to do something production wise for her.

I’m an emotional person.

A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.

In this day and age, when you can use a machine or computer to simulate or emulate what people can do together, it still can’t replace the magic of four people in a room playing.

I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don’t see why I would stop.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.