Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

Humanity, you never had it to begin with.

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‚our own life‘ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‚our own life‘ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

The game is changing with songs like ‚Earned It‘ as opposed to it changing me.

There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one’s self on lies and fables.

Without stirring abroad, One can know the whole world; Without looking out of the window One can see the way of heaven. The further one goes The less one knows.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

Overall there’s going to be things I’m not great at.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.

I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

It would be my guess that Madonna is not a very happy woman. From my own experience, having gone through persona changes like that, that kind of clawing need to be the center of attention is not a pleasant place to be.

Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

I think it’s OK to be confident in yourself.

Never take anything for granted.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

I briefly did therapy, but after a while, I realised it is just like a farmer complaining about the weather. You can’t fix the weather – you just have to get on with it.

I’ve learned that usually, the less I know about other people, the better off I am.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Hollywood is not suited for me, and I am not suited for it.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask?

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

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

We humans are self-absorbed by nature, and spend most of our time focusing inwardly on our emotions, on our wounds, on our fantasies.

The post of honour is a private station.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it.

I suppose for a very long time I’ve been trying to understand how it is that people might make sense out of their lives and make meaning and make their lives meaningful in the face of the trouble that life brings.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

Do not keep saying to yourself, if you can possibly avoid it, ‚But how can it be like that?‘ because you will get ‚down the drain,‘ into a blind alley from which nobody has yet escaped. Nobody knows how it can be like that.

I’ve never professed to be anything but an average student.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

I deeply regret any harm, or any perceived harm, that I may have done to anyone by any behaviour of mine.

If I feel anxious every time someone is staring at me, well, I can’t control what they stare at, but my reaction is, I’m just not going to go outside the house. I’m going to stay in and chill. And when I do go out, I understand what comes along with that.

Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn’t done in life. They wish they hadn’t kicked their dog when they were ten or something.

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

When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

Man is a universe within himself.

If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.