When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing seems to me to be one of the most basic principles that you can adopt to contribute to individual and world peace.

I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles.

The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they’re not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can ‚cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.

I don’t like to read things that people write about me. I’d rather read what kids have to say about me because it’s not their profession to do that.

Thanks to my reading, I have never been caught flat-footed by any situation, never at a loss for how any problem has been addressed… It doesn’t give me all the answers, but it lights what is often a dark path ahead.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

You have to just make the choices you make in life. I made the choices I made because I believed they were right for me.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.

Being a kid’s not easy. You’re transforming and becoming a human being. At some point, you have everyone taking care of you, and then, all of a sudden, you’re out in the world.

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

If you don’t set the tone for the day, the devil will set it for you.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

Yeah, I was a delinquent. It was when I was in the ninth grade. I was doing stupid stuff, and the cops came into the class. I was humiliated more than anything.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

I don’t really know that much about love, it turns out.

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.

The world can criticize me, but l can always criticize it back.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

You have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.

I do not paint a portrait to look like the subject, rather does the person grow to look like his portrait.

You cannot create experience. You must undergo it.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.

If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.

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.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.

Within all of us is a divine capacity to manifest and attract all that we need and desire.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

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

I want people to draw strength from me.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

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.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.