One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

We become what we repeatedly do.

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

I have a terrifying long list of fears. Literally everything – diseases, spiders… and people getting tired of me.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

Good luck has its storms.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

Some days I totally appreciate everything that’s happening to me, and some days I feel everyone’s waiting for me to mess up.

I can’t pretend that I’m brave and that I can beat the whole world.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

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.

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.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Life is about growing and improving and getting better.

Little minds have little worries, big minds have no time for worries.

My reputation grows with every failure.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don’t have any flaws.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

I’m no leader; I’m a little humble follower.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

Somebody’s boring me. I think it’s me.

I was always taught not to answer no questions. I’m not really good at answering them because I get agitated so fast.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?

You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

Before you try to keep up with the Joneses, be sure they’re not trying to keep up with you.

People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.

I got my own back.