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

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

I’m quite a chauvinistic person.

Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you’re under reproach, your behavior shows it.

Find people who will make you better.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.

It is only a man’s own fundamental thoughts that have truth and life in them. For it is these that he really and completely understands. To read the thoughts of others is like taking the remains of someone else’s meal, like putting on the discarded clothes of a stranger.

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’ve been studying the Bible for a long time. I remember that after the first five years or so of diligently studying the Word, I didn’t feel like I had made any progress. There were a lot of things in my life that were out of order, and I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere.

Silence speaks so much louder than screaming tantrums. Never give anyone an excuse to say that you’re crazy.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

Be as you wish to seem.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

I am tough, but deep inside my toughness, I like to let people know I’m an old-fashioned mama’s boy.

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

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection – you cannot cope with the future.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

I don’t follow all the 48 laws. Like, I’ve never crushed anyone totally.

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

I always believe that there should come a time when your energy, speed, stamina should combine well with your brains.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you. I don’t ever feel like the cool kid at the party, ever. It’s like, ‚Smile and be nice to everybody, because you were not invited to be here.‘

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

I always have a full-length mirror next to the camera when I’m doing publicity stills. That way, I know how I look.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

I suppose I am reluctant about being any sort of ‚star‘ and I didn’t particularly want to be portrayed as one.

Patriotism is usually stronger than class hatred, and always stronger than internationalism.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

I’m not a god – I do bad things.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense, a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.

My connection with Brazil is so abstract. My blood and my way of thinking is Brazilian, but that’s it. I don’t tend to go back to the past, and although I have an apartment there, I rarely visit. When I move, I really move.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.

If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.