Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

Vanity is but the surface.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

The most common lie is that which one lies to himself; lying to others is relatively an exception.

I don’t see myself as beautiful, because I can see a lot of flaws. People have really odd opinions. They tell me I’m skinny, as if that’s supposed to make me happy.

What I have in common with the character in ‚Truman‘ is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.

I can live for two months on a good compliment.

Many people would be surprised that, in fact, I’m quite shy.

I’ve always been really, really aware of my insecurities – really, really aware. I never developed that thick skin that keeps you from letting things get to you.

How could man rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men?

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

I’m honest enough to say I don’t know everything. You know, I don’t. I don’t understand all of God. I don’t understand, you know, some kind of why bad things happen.

The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

It was still quiet in the house, and not a sound was heard from outside, either. Were it not for this silence, my reverie would probably have been disrupted by reminders of daily duties, of getting up and going to school.

Even though I write about the human race, the further away from them, the better I feel. Two miles is great; two thousand miles is beautiful.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

We have all had the experience of finding that our reactions and perhaps even our deeds have denied beliefs we thought were ours.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

I guess I have a little bit of an ego. I’m confidently cocky, you might say.

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.

My dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.

People don’t usually compliment your character.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire, called conscience.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

I don’t write so much now. I’m getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.

This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification.

We will always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.

By the time you’ve reached your sixties, you do know that one day you will die, and knowing that is at least the beginning of wisdom.

I’m not confused. I’m just well mixed.

I am never satisfied with myself and that is what keeps me going – I have no post-satisfaction.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

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

You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection – you cannot cope with the future.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

I’ve always felt like there was a lot of hype around me even when there wasn’t. I felt like everyone was talking about me even when no one was talking about me.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

I long remained a child, and I am still one in many respects.

You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?

There are two kinds of people in this world. ‚I‘ people and ‚we‘ people. I’ve always tried to be a ‚we‘ person.

No face which we can give to a matter will stead us so well at last as the truth. This alone wears well.

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.

Judge of your natural character by what you do in your dreams.

All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.

Become slower in your journey through life. Practice yoga and meditation if you suffer from ‚hurry sickness.‘ Become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes. Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walking bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state.