Spiritual people don’t float around all day on clouds of glory; they live in the real world and deal with real issues in real ways.

There was something undifferentiated and yet complete, which existed before Heaven and Earth. Soundless and formless, it depends on nothing and does not change. It operates everywhere and is free from danger. It may be considered the mother of the universe. I do not know its name; I call it Tao.

Our body is dependant on Heaven and Heaven on the Spirit.

If there really is a god, then he really looks after me.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

I do not doubt that we would become more useful if we praised God more, and others would join us, for they would see that God has blessed us.

I had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‚sexy,‘ even before I knew what the word was.

Little by little, not by making big promises, I need to be calmer, read more, spend more time with my loved ones, and be more mindful about nature and environment.

God is everywhere.

There is an afterlife. I am convinced of this.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.

Often, in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.

I knew ‚Crenshaw‘ had elevated me and distinguished me.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

Despite the slowness, the infidelity, the errors and sins it committed and might still commit against its members, the Church, trust me, has no other meaning and goal but to live and witness Jesus.

My message is that God is a good God.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

The Church is like a great tree whose roots must be energetically anchored in the earth while its leaves are serenely exposed to the bright sunlight. In this way, she sums up a whole gamut of beats in a single living and all-embracing act, each one of which corresponds to a particular degree or a possible form of spiritualisation.

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

Well look, I mean, I think that prayer and holy water, and things like that are all fine. They don’t do any good, but they don’t necessarily do any harm. It’s touching to be thought of in that way. It makes up for those who tell me that I’ve got my just desserts.

I’m an atheist and I thank God for it.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

I’ve been called a recluse. There’s definitely truth in that. I like to spend time alone.

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

God is a concept by which we measure our pain.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

I was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

When I was into my 30s, I became increasingly depressed by rejection letters. I had had the feeling that by the time I was 30, I would be established. But I was not at all. By the time of ‚Lives of Girls and Women,‘ I was into my 40s and I had become more thin-skinned.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.