Things that I felt absolutely sure of but a few years ago, I do not believe now. This thought makes me see more clearly how foolish it would be to expect all men to agree with me.

A lot of us grow up and we grow out of the literal interpretation that we get when we’re children, but we bear the scars all our life. Whether they’re scars of beauty or scars of ugliness, it’s pretty much in the eye of the beholder.

I don’t believe in the after life, although I am bringing a change of underwear.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

Religion is the opium of the masses.

Man is supposed to be the maker of his destiny. It is only partly true. He can make his destiny, only in so far as he is allowed by the Great Power.

Seeing myself on the screen makes me cringe. I understand that I am that way – pouty.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.

We like security: we like the pope to be infallible in matters of faith, and grave doctors to be so in moral questions so that we can feel reassured.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have or don’t have, what you lack, or what you have too much of. But all you need to have is faith in God, an undying passion for what you do and what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever you put your mind to.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I understand aggressiveness in only one way: being prepared to hurt yourself, not someone else.

I did used to have nightmares about the idea that when I die, there is a spark of consciousness which basically creates the world. ‚Is the world going to disappear if this spark of consciousness disappears? And how do I know it won’t? How do I know there’s anything there except what I’m conscious of?‘

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

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

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.

And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.

I’m not generally a sensitive person, but I tend to be more sensitive toward others and what they’re going through. I don’t know if that’s the healthiest thing, but it’s the truth.

When we’re looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

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

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

I’m a Christian by choice.

At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox.

I think what’s important is for us to decipher what is honest and what is dishonest and be accepting of those things and not operating from fear.

No driver is perfect.

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.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

Whether a person is straight or gay, Republican, Democrat, good person, not a good person, they’re all welcome, because to me, church is a place you’re supposed to get healed and whole and loved.

Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

Every once in a while, you let a word or phrase out and you want to catch it and bring it back. You can’t do that. It’s gone, gone forever.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.

I wish that the Indians believed me a god, for upon the report of an enemy’s valor oftentimes depends the success of a battle, and false reports have many times done as great things as true courage and resolution.

Animals are such agreeable friends – they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.

When men are easy in their circumstances, they are naturally enemies to innovations.

The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.

With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

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

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‚Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?‘ We must always consider the person.

This thing comes to me, not by the hearing of the ear, but by my own personal experience: I know of a surety that Jesus manifests Himself unto His people as He doth not unto the world.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

The best way to know God is to love many things.

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

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

When people are lame, they love to blame.

I wonder how many decisions we make every day. I believe it’s probably hundreds. We decide whether or not to get out of bed, what we’ll eat, what we’ll do, what we’ll think about, what we’ll say… and on and on.

Do I think faith will be an important part of being a good president? Yes, I do.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

I have to be seen to be believed.