We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

If you were to ask me what I want to do – I don’t want to be a celebrity, I want to make a difference.

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we’re going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it’s our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it’s because we’re focused on ourselves!

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them.

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It’s in your mind. We’re all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

Perhaps it is better to be irresponsible and right, than to be responsible and wrong.

I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

I try never to wear my own clothes, I pretend I’m someone else.

Acting helped me as I was growing up. It helped me learn about myself, helped me travel, helped me understand life, express myself, all those wonderful things. So I’m very, very grateful; it’s a fun job. It’s a luxury.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

Most of us are raised to believe we are ordinary. The anchor of the universe is present in every child. A parent only needs to guide and step aside and let them fulfill their dharma. Help children remember that they can do or be anything.

I’ve always believed in God. I also think that’s the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment, the capacity to believe, or at some point in your life, when you’re in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself, you simply make an agreement.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

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.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

I think that I’ve had a very strange life.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

Fear is not a lasting teacher of duty.

Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

Little by little, not by making big promises, I need to be calmer, read more, spend more time with my loved ones, and be more mindful about nature and environment.

In the West, as well as some other parts of the world, the personal sense of ego tends to predominate, whereas in other areas, there is a more collective sense of ego. This collective ego emphasizes the ‚we‘ rather than the ‚I.‘

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.

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

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally – and then I write a song about it and I feel better.

Most people have the opportunity of a lifetime flash right in front of them, and they fail to see it. A year later, they find out about it, after everyone else got rich.

You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

To live alone is the fate of all great souls.

My life is not to be somebody else’s impact – you know what I mean?

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

I’m not going to stop having problems.

Autobiographies are only useful as the lives you read about and analyze may suggest to you something that you may find useful in your own journey through life.

I always put myself out there. I’m not afraid to commit to something.

From the time I was a kid, I always knew something was going to happen to me. Didn’t know exactly what.

There’s not some idea I’m going to create a work that’s going to change everybody’s consciousness.

We cannot live being obsessed with what other people think about us. It’s impossible to live like that. Not even God managed to please the entire world.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

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.