There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

Fear is the mother of morality.

Every human being is under construction from conception to death.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library.

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.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

I’m not a natural joiner.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

The reason that I’m here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That’s my truth.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

I have a strong feeling that I shall be glad when I am dead and done for – scrapped at last to make room for somebody better, cleverer, more perfect than myself.

How one life turns out is not dependent on what people do to us or what they don’t do for us.

I’m kind of claustrophobic… It’s not even like enclosed spaces. It’s like I hate being stuck in one band, you know? Just being stuck is the biggest drag, for fear that, you know, just that you can’t get out.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

Washington is a very easy city for you to forget where you came from and why you got there in the first place.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

People react to fear, not love; they don’t teach that in Sunday School, but it’s true.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

I was a very shy character, always feeling uncomfortable because everybody was stronger than I, and always afraid I would look like a sissy. Everybody else played baseball; everybody else did all kinds of athletic things.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.

I hate to be smart.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

Only the insecure strive for security.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

I’ve been called a moron since I was about four. My father called me a moron. My grandfather said I was a moron. And a lot of times when I’m driving, I hear I’m a moron. I like being a moron.

Ritual is another word for fear, manifested in a different way.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.