Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.

We should purify our innate well of contentment – what a wonderful expression – and then external things will be in harmony with us.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

Man consists of two parts, his mind and his body, only the body has more fun.

Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn’t, I would die.

Indignation is a submission of our thoughts, but not of our desires.

The cause of my life has been to oppose superstition. It’s a battle you can’t hope to win – it’s a battle that’s going to go on forever. It’s part of the human condition.

To be absolutely certain about something, one must know everything or nothing about it.

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

Morality is the basis of things and truth is the substance of all morality.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

It is better to be alone than in bad company.

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

We work to become, not to acquire.

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you’ve closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

I don’t want to be something that just comes and goes.

There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.

Everybody has a purpose.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

I feel matured in a way that I’m happy about. I’m at this other stage in my life – and it’s not a bad thing at all.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

Not being afraid to be wrong – I had to learn how to do that.

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.

It is no use saying, ‚We are doing our best.‘ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

My reputation grows with every failure.

I teach children to be winners.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Religion is part of the human make-up. It’s also part of our cultural and intellectual history. Religion was our first attempt at literature, the texts, our first attempt at cosmology, making sense of where we are in the universe, our first attempt at health care, believing in faith healing, our first attempt at philosophy.

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

The time to take counsel of your fears is before you make an important battle decision. That’s the time to listen to every fear you can imagine! When you have collected all the facts and fears and made your decision, turn off all your fears and go ahead!

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

I look upon death to be as necessary to our constitution as sleep. We shall rise refreshed in the morning.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.