When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

People do not make wars; governments do.

The most dangerous word in any human tongue is the word for brother. It’s inflammatory.

What’s the good of drawing in the next breath if all you do is let it out and draw in another?

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

Buddhism teaches us not to try to run away from suffering. You have to confront suffering. You have to look deeply into the nature of suffering in order to recognize its cause, the making of the suffering.

Your body has space within you that cannot die.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

The self is hateful.

I have trouble with letting go. That’s my problem.

I had no talent for science. What was infinitely worse: all my fraternity brothers were engineers.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

I don’t think the war in Afghanistan was ruthlessly enough waged.

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

Everyone knows nowadays that people ‚have complexes‘. What is not so well known, though far more important theoretically, is that complexes can have us.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

I think my vice would be outdoing myself.

The abdomen is the reason why man does not readily take himself to be a god.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

Wars have never hurt anybody except the people who die.

Fame doesn’t fulfill you. It warms you a bit, but that warmth is temporary.

My weak spot is laziness. Oh, I have a lot of weak spots: cookies, croissants.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

My body is quite tiny, but a lot of the emotions I feel are pretty explosive. They have to come out.

I exaggerate when I’m angry, but I’ve never gone around telling people things that aren’t true about me.

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror – and America is honored to be their friend.

That’s all I could ever hope for, to have a positive effect on women. ‚Cos women are powerful, powerful beings. But they’re also the most doubtful beings. They’ll never know – we’ll never know – how powerful we are.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

This is not Johnson’s war. This is America’s war. If I drop dead tomorrow, this war will still be with you.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

The many questions about the bombing of Yugoslavia by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – meaning primarily the United States – come down to two fundamental issues: ‚What are the accepted and applicable ‚rules of world order,‘ and how do these apply in the case of Kosovo?‘

The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States – and war is what they got.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon – no alternative.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

Don’t ever play yourself.

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

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

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.

There’s no reality except the one contained within us. That’s why so many people live an unreal life. They take images outside them for reality and never allow the world within them to assert itself.

An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.

When you can whip any man in the world, you never know peace.

I am trying to find myself. Sometimes that’s not easy.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

You’re looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.

Pride is still aiming at the best houses: Men would be angels, angels would be gods. Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell; aspiring to be angels men rebel.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

It’s only I have seen enough of it and the funny thing is now, I know that I’m skinny, because I know there are even smaller clothes in the store. I think I’m big, when I was big, I never thought about it.

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.