Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

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

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

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

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

First, I’m trying to prove to myself that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll convince myself that I’m an actress.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

Reversing your treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking his forgiveness.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

And we are never too old to study the Bible. Each time the lessons are studied comes some new meaning, some new thought which will make us better.

Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.

When I left the University of Notre Dame, I honestly felt I would never coach again.

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

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

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

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

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

I never even thought of myself as deadpan until someone wrote an article about me about a year after I was doing comedy. There was a paper called the ‚Boston Phoenix,‘ and someone wrote a description of what I was doing and that’s where I first saw ‚deadpan.‘

The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel anything.

Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

I think beating myself up sometimes and knowing I am not happy when I do it makes me work harder to do a good job.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

I just want to be myself.

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

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.

Remember, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.