We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by hate and darkness, or we’re able to regain our humanity somehow, or come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves.

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.

I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.

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

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‚If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?‘ And whenever the answer has been ‚No‘ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

People want to feel hopeful.

I didn’t consider myself a fashion designer at all at the time of punk. I was just using fashion as a way to express my resistance and to be rebellious. I came from the country, and by the time I got to London, I considered myself to be very stupid. It was my ambition to understand the world I live in.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

Over the years I’ve seen people lose a spouse and then withdraw and lose interest in life, and I believe we need to resist that.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.

When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?

I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.

Choosing an attitude of faith will release peace out of your spirit and into your soul.

I try to teach my heart not to want things it can’t have.

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

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

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 had nothing growing up, but I always wanted to be ‚sexy,‘ even before I knew what the word was.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

I like to have fun all the time, even if I’m working.

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

When I left the University of Notre Dame, I honestly felt I would never coach again.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

The people in my songs are all me.

Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.

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

When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways – either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

I try not to think about my life. I have no life. I need therapy.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

I’m not this horrible, evil person.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

In a universe that’s an intelligent system with a divine creative force supporting it, there simply can be no accidents. As tough as it is to acknowledge, you had to go through what you went through in order to get to where you are today, and the evidence is that you did.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It’s like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.