The truth is that you can only come to know God when you give up the past and the future in your mind and merge totally into the now, because God is always here now.

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.

I think and that is all that I am.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

My message is that God is a good God.

I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.

Silence is a source of great strength.

In each action we must look beyond the action at our past, present, and future state, and at others whom it affects, and see the relations of all those things. And then we shall be very cautious.

Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

My mother raised me with God. We were poor financially, but we were rich spiritually.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.

I need to keep working on myself for a while.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

And suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension.

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you.

Usually, people have a tendency to be caught in the worries concerning the future or in the regret concerning the past. There is some kind of energy that is pushing them to run, and they are not able to establish themselves in the present moment.

If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‚em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

You know, God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time.

Money does not change people, people change.

I’m living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.

There was a while when I was feeling like, ‚Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this‘.

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

Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

Sometimes I lose my temper.

I’m the most stubborn person I know.

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

I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I’m just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.

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

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

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

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

We’ve fallen into a trap of ever-widening orbits of contact, and there is a total disregard for the present moment.

The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

The truth is, if we don’t learn to submit to authority, we won’t ever learn to submit to God.

Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.

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.

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

To be awake is to be alive.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

I’m actually an evangelical atheist, but there is something I recognise about religion: that it gives people a chance to surrender.

Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

We hand folks over to God’s mercy, and show none ourselves.

I wouldn’t say that I am one of the greatest dancers, but I am really quite good at what I do.

I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.

I thank God I’m myself and for the life I’m given to live and for friends and lovers and beloveds, and I thank God for knowing that all those people have already paid for me.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.