When you seek the presence of your creative Spirit and are filled with passion about virtually everything you undertake, you’ll successfully remove the roadblocks from your life and enjoy the active presence of Spirit.

When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

I hate the idea of genres.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

Aim for the highest.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

I love those who do not know how to live for today.

Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity – and I don’t mean simple – it’ll be good, and the public will know it.

You know those things that you throw the twigs into and it spits them out? That’s what I do. The branches are like life, and I throw them into my head and some of it comes out as humor.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

I hate what I look like on TV, and I want to look better, and nothing makes the mothers more jealous.

When I start to write, I don’t have any plan at all. I just wait for the story to come.

Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

Without failure there is no achievement.

I don’t get up, get dressed, go out, and think, ‚Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.‘

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Men admire the man who can organize their wishes and thoughts in stone and wood and steel and brass.

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

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.

I’m still living at least five parallel lives, honestly! I wonder about it. I have no idea how that happens.

One of the things I did when I discovered this huge importance of being vulnerable is very happily moved away from the shame research, because that’s such a downer, and people hate that topic. It’s not that vulnerability is the upside, but it’s better than shame, I guess.

Marriage destroyed my relationship with two wonderful men.

Life well spent is long.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

The big question about how people behave is whether they’ve got an Inner Scorecard or an Outer Scorecard. It helps if you can be satisfied with an Inner Scorecard.

I was in my thirteenth year when I heard a voice from God to help me govern my conduct. And the first time I was very much afraid.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

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

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

I can’t ever remember sitting around and saying, ‚gosh let’s hurry up and get these debates going, that’ll win it for me.‘ Nope.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

I love being American, and I love family. I love having a family, and I feel so blessed, and I feel like God gave me exactly what I wanted, so now I have to do the right thing in God’s eyes also. Just follow what God wants me to do.

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

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

I always teach myself calm and visualization stuff.

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.

The artist in me cries out for design.

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.

I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world.