My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

What’s the greater risk? Letting go of what people think – or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.

The personal ego already has a strong element of dysfunction, but the collective ego is, frequently, even more dysfunctional, to the point of absolute insanity.

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

Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

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.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

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

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I need to keep working on myself for a while.

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

You’re looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.

Become aware of your own insufficiency.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

I am a sinner. This is the most accurate definition. It is not a figure of speech, a literary genre. I am a sinner.

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

We are in a far better position to observe instincts in animals or in primitives than in ourselves. This is due to the fact that we have grown accustomed to scrutinizing our own actions and to seeking rational explanations for them.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.

Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I’m quite shy.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

I never desired to please the rabble. What pleased them, I did not learn; and what I knew was far removed from their understanding.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

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

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

If every choice you make comes from an honest place, you’re solid, and nothing anybody can say about you can rock you or change your opinion.

You know, I live a monastic lifestyle. No, I do. I do live in extremes, basically. I go back and forth. Once every six months, I’ll have a day where I eat more chocolate than has ever been consumed by a human being.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

I had no talent for science. What was infinitely worse: all my fraternity brothers were engineers.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

I think the healthy way to live is to make friends with the beast inside oneself, and that means not the beast but the shadow. The dark side of one’s nature. Have fun with it and you know, is to accept everything about ourselves.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

For people who may think they know, or have snippets of who I am, you can attack that person. That’s part of being a public figure.

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

I’ve always been really, really aware of my insecurities – really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.