Once someone has spent enough time cultivating bad habits and biding their time, they are much diminished. Much of what they could have been has dissipated.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

The challenge is to stay cool enough to handle the pressure in the moment so that you can succeed in the future.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

Meditation is a vital practice to access conscious contact with your highest self.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Aim for the highest.

I think the reason I don’t read is because, when I’m reading, I feel like I’m missing out on something else. You know, What are my friends doing? Where’s my girlfriend?

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

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.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it. I’m never satisfied.

I don’t have time to be lonely. And I get fearful of relationships because I feel guilty about wanting someone to be completely faithful and loyal, when I can’t even give them 10 percent of the attention that they need. It’s just the reality of my time, my life, my schedule.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

I just don’t have time to get old!

You fail only if you stop writing.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed. There ain’t much credit in that.

To love is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

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

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

The presence of passion within you is the greatest gift you can receive. Treat it as a miracle.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Successful people are simply those with successful habits.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

I’m just looking to learn, grow, stay focused, and become a better fighter and a better athlete.

I’m a decent cook; I’m a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

Right now, we don’t have a very good relation with creation.

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

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.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

If you have the insight of non-self, if you have the insight of impermanence, you should make that insight into a concentration that you keep alive throughout the day. Then what you say, what you think, and what you do will then be in the light of that wisdom and you will avoid making mistakes and creating suffering.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

I have wasted my hours.

It is even better to act quickly and err than to hesitate until the time of action is past.

For a highly motivated learner, it’s not like knowledge is secret and somehow the Internet made it not secret. It just made knowledge easy to find. If you’re a motivated enough learner, books are pretty good.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.

A man’s character is his fate.

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.

The future is purchased by the present.

I always make my dreams into goals.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.