We have the tendency to run away from suffering and to look for happiness. But, in fact, if you have not suffered, you have no chance to experience real happiness.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

It’s not always been a happy marriage. I guess I wanted a quick fix.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

Beauty is the promise of happiness.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.

You can’t deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of ‚I know.‘ Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

I was a very shy character, always feeling uncomfortable because everybody was stronger than I, and always afraid I would look like a sissy. Everybody else played baseball; everybody else did all kinds of athletic things.

In my own life I know that my state of cheerfulness is a reliable gauge of my level of spiritual enlightenment at that moment. The more cheerful, happy, contented, and satisfied I am feeling, the more aware I am of my deep connection to Spirit.

Courage is found in unlikely places.

Everything is an open book. I don’t speak on other people’s hardship, but if it happened in my life or something that has been an experience on my particular journey, I’m going to talk about it. That’s what my fan base appreciates the most. I’m universal. You can relate to the things I say or that I go through.

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness. But I know I am successful, wealthy, and connected because I am happy.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

I heard a definition once: Happiness is health and a short memory! I wish I’d invented it, because it is very true.

You can be happy where you are.

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

Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.

He who commits injustice is ever made more wretched than he who suffers it.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Every time there has been an effort by the Haitian people to overcome the misery and poverty that comes from 200 years of bitter attacks, really bitter, the U.S. steps in and blocks it.

In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

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.

Libraries raised me.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God.

I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.

If I love you, what business is it of yours?

I don’t suffer of anything that I’ve lost.

If you have fear, you are bound by tradition, you follow some leader or guru. When you are bound by tradition, when you are afraid of your husband or your wife, you lose your dignity as an individual human being.

Wanting to feel good is synonymous with wanting to feel God.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

Who is rich? He that is content. Who is that? Nobody.

Learning about climate change triggered my depression in the first place. But it was also what got me out of my depression, because there were things I could do to improve the situation. I don’t have time to be depressed anymore.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.

We are wiser than we know.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

I’m always attracted to people who interest me. They’ve got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They’re interested in people.