Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.

Personal columnists are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat – no matter who killed the meat for him.

I thank God I’m in a position where I can pick and choose – there are some roles I don’t play.

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

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

The buck stops here!

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.

I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.

I’ve always felt like there was a lot of hype around me even when there wasn’t. I felt like everyone was talking about me even when no one was talking about me.

I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.

I’m not a natural born performer.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

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

I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

One thing I hope I’ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am will never work in this town again.

The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

T stands for being nice. T stands for manners. T stands for being polite.

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.

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.

I delayed my father’s funeral because of cricket.

I never get too high on my stardom or what I can do.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations… They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.

Remember, no one decides who they’re going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.

The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.

My one big regret is that I didn’t play on for ten more years.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

If you judge, investigate.

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.

I’ve always felt quite singular, even as a child. That I must stay on track to keep my purpose.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

I knew that I was ‚interesting‘ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

Fear is the mother of morality.

Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?

In 1949, China declared independence – an event known in Western discourse as ‚the loss of China‘ in the U.S. – with bitter recriminations and conflict over who was responsible for that loss.

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

When I was running training, we would fire a couple of leaders from every SEAL team because they couldn’t lead. And 99.9% of the time, it wasn’t a question of their ability – it was a question of their ability to listen.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

For most of us, relationship with another is based on dependence, either economic or psychological. This dependence creates fear, breeds in us possessiveness, results in friction, suspicion, frustration.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.