Solitude is independence.

Thirty was so strange for me. I’ve really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.

When I was 11, the whole world was closed to me. I just felt I was on the outside of the world.

I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do In His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

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

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?‘

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

I am no longer sure of anything. If I satiate my desires, I sin but I deliver myself from them; if I refuse to satisfy them, they infect the whole soul.

If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.

I’ve discovered that when we take time to renew our minds with God’s Word, we learn how to think like God thinks, say what God says, and act like He wants us to act.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.

Man is a universe within himself.

I came up from a difficult background.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

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 will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

I am alone a lot, which is good. I need that time to just be alone after a long day, just decompress. So, I go to either my house or the hotel, or my apartment, or whatever – wherever I am, I go home and I watch TV and I sit there, with my cat, and I just watch TV or go online, check my emails.

I never ask anyone else’s opinion. They don’t count.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

It’s still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

I myself have been on my own and utterly independent since I graduated. I haven’t belonged to any company or any system. It isn’t easy to live like this in Japan.

To the dumb question, ‚Why me?‘ the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, ‚Why not?‘

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

No, it’s not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.

Become slower in your journey through life. Practice yoga and meditation if you suffer from ‚hurry sickness.‘ Become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes. Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

What nourishes me also destroys me.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

All my life I’ve been taught how to die, but no one ever taught me how to grow old.

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

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

When you look into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you.

How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

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?

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

I get naturally uncomfortable when I’m put under a magnifying glass.