We humans are self-absorbed by nature, and spend most of our time focusing inwardly on our emotions, on our wounds, on our fantasies.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

Men must live and create. Live to the point of tears.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

I had to resign myself, many years ago, that I’m not too articulate when it comes to explaining how I feel about things. But my music does it for me, it really does.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

All you need is love.

Man is made to adore and to obey: but if you will not command him, if you give him nothing to worship, he will fashion his own divinities, and find a chieftain in his own passions.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

I gave ‚em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.

He who cannot give anything away cannot feel anything either.

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

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

Consider a tree for a moment. As beautiful as trees are to look at, we don’t see what goes on underground – as they grow roots. Trees must develop deep roots in order to grow strong and produce their beauty. But we don’t see the roots. We just see and enjoy the beauty. In much the same way, what goes on inside of us is like the roots of a tree.

First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

I lost some of my friends because I got so famous, people who just assumed that I would be different now. I felt like everyone hated me. That is the most unhappy time of my life.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

What makes us human, I think, is an ability to ask questions, a consequence of our sophisticated spoken language.

I think that it’s okay to be mad at someone who hurt you. This isn’t about, like, the pageantry of trying to seem like nothing affects you.

My heroes don’t have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don’t know how, so they talk to themselves.

No one was more shocked or angry than I was when we didn’t find the weapons. I had a sickening feeling every time I thought about it. I still do.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

As I’m traveling around, I meet many small children. And when I look at a small and think how we’ve harmed this beautiful planet since I was that age, I feel a kind of desperation, anger, shame. I don’t know what I feel; I just don’t know what the emotion is.

I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs barrier?

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

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

I have resolved on an enterprise that has no precedent and will have no imitator. I want to set before my fellow human beings a man in every way true to nature; and that man will be myself.

People like to hear the word ‚love.‘

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

I change during the course of a day. I wake and I’m one person, and when I go to sleep I know for certain I’m somebody else.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself.

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.

Nature is not human hearted.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

I’m not good at talking about myself.

I don’t think it’s possible to have a sense of tragedy without having a sense of humor.

The human heart is the same the world over.

I feel, as a songwriter, it’s one of the hardest things to do – to sit down and say how you feel.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

People have different emotional levels. Especially when you’re young.

When I grew up, the Devil was a reason why I had a headache or the Devil was the reason I got mad today. We always blamed the Devil. I think today when I say the Enemy, I like to make it broader. Sometimes the Enemy can be our own thoughts.

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

I really believed that fear is contagious.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.