When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

You either make dust or eat dust.

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.

There cannot be a God because if there were one, I could not believe that I was not He.

Existence precedes and rules essence.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

All genuinely intellectual work is humorous.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

Nature is not human hearted.

When you think about it, three of our biggest financial decisions in life are made at times of peak emotional excitement: deciding to get married, buying a home, and having kids.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

I’m a decent cook; I’m a decent chef. None of my friends would ever have hired me at any point in my career. Period.

I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, ‚Sexiest Man Alive,‘ I’m honestly going, ‚Thank you. Right on.‘ For me, it’s never canceled out anything, it’s never made me go, ‚Does this make me less talented of an actor?‘

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

We account the Scriptures of God to be the most sublime philosophy.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

You’re not better than anybody else, but you’re not less than anybody else. You’re a child of the Most High God.

It is folly for an eminent man to think of escaping censure, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution.

Your Highest Self only wants you to be at peace. It does not judge, compare, or demand that you defeat anyone or be better than anyone.

If one has a good disposition, what other virtue is needed? If a man has fame, what is the value of other ornamentation?

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

The fool wonders, the wise man asks.

I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help – we can all help.

What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

I want to believe that I am improving. This is something that I take really seriously.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people, but I don’t regret having concerned myself with them because I think most of us are disturbed.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

If you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.

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.

If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

Knowledge is true opinion.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

When you’re in hell, you forget how great you really are because you’re suffering and you forget the great things you’ve done.

I look at myself like a show dog. I’ve got to keep her clipped and trimmed and in good shape.