The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn’t give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself.

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

I love designing at the moment, I’m so happy with my work.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

One thing I want to make clear, as far as my own rebirth is concerned, the final authority is myself and no one else, and obviously not China’s Communists.

Who, being loved, is poor?

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me – spiritually and financially.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

Peace is its own reward.

When it’s your time, it is your time.

Use, do not abuse… neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

Playing in MLS was a great experience. It has boosted my confidence and I feel I have matured as a player.

I had rather believe all the Fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind.

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure.

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

Probably the happiest period in life most frequently is in middle age, when the eager passions of youth are cooled, and the infirmities of age not yet begun; as we see that the shadows, which are at morning and evening so large, almost entirely disappear at midday.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

The fact is that since you’re a divine creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you need and want to do while you’re here on earth. It’s all perfect… and so are you!

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

Men must know their limitations.

It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

The observer, when he seems to himself to be observing a stone, is really, if physics is to be believed, observing the effects of the stone upon himself.

Call it Nature, Fate, Fortune; all these are names of the one and selfsame God.

Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.

Man is an intelligence in servitude to his organs.

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

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.

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

If someone you know makes a bad decision or uses bad judgment, it doesn’t mean you have to allow that to alter your attitude. Why should you allow anyone else’s bad decisions to send you into a tailspin of misery?

These are all personal crises, I’m sure, that I manifest in a song format and project into physical situations. You make little stories up about how you feel. It’s as simple as that.

Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

Modern science says: ‚The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.‘ From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom.

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

I feel confident imposing change on myself. It’s a lot more fun progressing than looking back. That’s why I need to throw curve balls.

One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

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

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

I have an existential map. It has ‚You are here‘ written all over it.

The truth is something that burns. It burns off dead wood. And people don’t like having the dead wood burnt off, often because they’re 95 percent dead wood.

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.