Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

That’s the biggest gift I can give anybody: ‚Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you’re doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.‘

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

Sometimes when you’ve had a long series of disappointing things happen, you can get into the very bad habit of just expecting more of what you’ve already had.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

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

It is not necessary that you leave the house. Remain at your table and listen. Do not even listen, only wait. Do not even wait, be wholly still and alone. The world will present itself to you for its unmasking, it can do no other, in ecstasy it will writhe at your feet.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

I never make conscious decisions.

I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still small voice of conscience.

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It’s in your mind. We’re all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

I didn’t think Marilyn Monroe was beautiful. It used to worry me. I thought maybe I’m not put together like the other chaps.

I don’t think I get that upset over things.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

Too often in life, something happens and we blame other people for us not being happy or satisfied or fulfilled. So the point is, we all have choices, and we make the choice to accept people or situations or to not accept situations.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

Stupidly it should not be. It should be also nice. One must get along with that. Is however not necessary.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

You should never give up your inner self.

In this business you have to develop a thick skin, but I’m always going to feel everything. It’s my nature.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

Character is power.

I don’t blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they’ll realize there’s more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

The more in harmony with yourself you are, the more joyful you are and the more faithful you are. Faith is not to disconnect you from reality – it connects you to reality.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

God is speaking to us. But are we listening to Him? When our conscience begins to nudge us for whatever reason, we might have this low-level misery or uneasiness about whatever it is we’ve done or we’re about to do. At times like this, it’s wise to prayerfully consider whether we’re offending God with our actions.

I am no longer sure of anything. If I satiate my desires, I sin but I deliver myself from them; if I refuse to satisfy them, they infect the whole soul.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

My biggest skill is common sense. I understand life.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.

Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.

Instead of worrying about what people say of you, why not spend time trying to accomplish something they will admire.

I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s.

The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.

I had never been in charge of anything. I’d always worked for someone. I worked for a furniture warehouse. I did masonry. I always had a boss yelling at me. So I’d never been in charge of an organization.

Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.