No man really knows about other human beings. The best he can do is to suppose that they are like himself.

Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be – and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not.

Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

If your heart is a volcano, how shall you expect flowers to bloom?

We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s ‚Pensees‘ and read, ‚I am the great silent spaces between worlds.‘

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

We pity in others only the those evils which we ourselves have experienced.

There’s a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What’s the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it’s exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That’s really cool. That’s the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.

Man is the most intelligent of the animals – and the most silly.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

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

I think the idea of art kills creativity.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

The self is hateful.

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

My life is mine to remember.

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see.

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

I have striven not to laugh at human actions, not to weep at them, nor to hate them, but to understand them.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

The healthy man does not torture others – generally it is the tortured who turn into torturers.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.

Age doesn’t bother me. So many of my heroes were older guys. It’s the lack of years left that weighs far heavier on me than the age that I am.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.

Older people sit down and ask, ‚What is it?‘ but the boy asks, ‚What can I do with it?‘.

There’s nothing funnier than the human animal.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

I have seen enough of one war never to wish to see another.

There is no unique picture of reality.

When it comes to our everyday habits, it’s important to ask: ‚Am I putting God first?‘

The universe is wider than our views of it.

We have to stop and be humble enough to understand that there is something called mystery.

I always thought it was wrong for me to take credit for the work that I did. I don’t think that anymore.

What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it’s a good indication of what you’re made of.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.