We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Travel teaches toleration.

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.

I think the best thing I ever did with my life was stand up and say I’ve got Alzheimer’s.

There’s a difference in thinking you are a champion and knowing that you are.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

There’s room for role models who make mistakes.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

I’m not looking to freak people out – eating rodents or bugs. I don’t do that anymore.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

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

Love is a state of being.

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

All of us are mentors. You’re mentors right here and now. And one of the things I’ve always done throughout my life, I have always found that person, that group of people that I was going to reach my hand out and help bring them along with me.

You have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity.

I tend to overthink things. I’m not the guy who screams ‚This is a world smash!‘ when I finish a song.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind – in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self.

The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.

What I’ve learned is that you really don’t need to be a celebrity or have money or have the paparazzi following you around to be famous.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

If you’ve lost your spirit, even living in the richest country in the world can’t help you become rich.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

I never expected to be anybody important.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me – spiritually and financially.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

My parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.

People are more aware now of cities and of different ways of life. I suppose the writing I do is a bit in the past, and I’m not sure it’s the kind of writing I would do if I were starting now.

I do believe in the old saying, ‚What does not kill you makes you stronger.‘ Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

You lose your individuality a huge amount when you have no money, and I certainly had that experience.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.