What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.

I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don’t want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

A shady business never yields a sunny life.

I know, to banish anger altogether from one’s breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God’s grace.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

My life is my argument.

I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

I don’t think a lot of people know personally who I am.

For a long time now I have tried simply to write the best I can. Sometimes I have good luck and write better than I can.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

You carry Mother Earth within you. She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Reactive people… are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

It’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.

If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.

No one but a fool is always right.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

No man is hurt but by himself.

I let the American people down.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn’t done in life. They wish they hadn’t kicked their dog when they were ten or something.

I’m not perfect.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.