We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.

I guess I wanted to leave America for awhile. It wasn’t that I wanted to become an expatriate, or just never come back, I needed some breathing room. I’d already been translating French poetry, I’d been to Paris once before and liked it very much, and so I just went.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

Men must know their limitations.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

When you face a ‚performance‘ that might provoke the ‚I’m scared‘ response, choose love and approach your opportunity as a chance to dance with God. It’s more fun than ‚Dancing with the Stars!‘

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

Love is a state of being.

Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

But blind to former as to future fate, what mortal knows his pre-existent state?

If you don’t live your life, then who will?

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

Complaining is dangerous business. It can damage or even destroy your relationship with God, your relationships with other people, and even with your relationship with yourself.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

Nothing gives rest but the sincere search for truth.

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

In one day, I have times where I’m feeling great, I feel like I love my life, and then 2:30 rolls around and I’m the angriest man alive. My wife sees it.

Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs.

I’m not perfect.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man’s being unable to sit still in a room.

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found.

The enemy is within the gates; it is with our own luxury, our own folly, our own criminality that we have to contend.

My future is righteousness.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

It is, generally, in the season of prosperity that men discover their real temper, principles, and designs.

I’m not a bad person.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.