The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Anything I do, I want to do it well.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

You’re looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

The narrow bandwidth of TV has made us think that we are stupider than we are.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

I have lost my mental faculties but am perfectly well.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

The weather and my mood have little connection. I have my foggy and my fine days within me; my prosperity or misfortune has little to do with the matter.

I never say I am a guru.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

It’s easy to forget who you are.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

Boot camp sucks – SEAL training sucks – but you know what? That’s what makes you good.

Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he be free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living?

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

There are many things I do where the centre of it is… It’s almost more my humanitarian work than art.

I know I want to always do the best I can.

If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

Stupidly it should not be. It should be also nice. One must get along with that. Is however not necessary.

Analysis is like a lobotomy. Who wants to have all their edges shaved off?

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.

I admire people who destroy themselves.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

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

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

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

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

I’ve read a lot of books on the laws of attraction, and in my home, I have a big book on Muhammad Ali, which I’ve read because he is, like, a hero of mine, but other than that, no, I’m not a big reader.