To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

The question is not, ‚Do you have a problem?‘ The question is, ‚Does the problem have you?‘

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

As a kid from Compton, you can get all the success in the world and still question your worth.

He who angers you conquers you.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

Solitude is independence.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

Be as you wish to seem.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

I often visited a particular plant four or five miles distant, half a dozen times within a fortnight, that I might know exactly when it opened.

It’s human nature to blame someone else for your shortcomings or upsets.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.

There are hunters, and there are victims. By your discipline, cunning, obedience, and alertness, you will decide if you are a hunter or a victim.

People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

People are so caught in a routine, doing the same things over and over.

Vanity is the healthiest thing in life.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

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.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

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

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

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

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.

Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

People should pursue what they’re passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

Fear makes us feel our humanity.

You always have to remember that if you say something negative, it’s going to come back to haunt you.

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

I’ve always felt quite singular, even as a child. That I must stay on track to keep my purpose.

A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.