Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.

Jiu Jitsu is probably the No. 1 activity that I could recommend to someone to improve their lives overall.

It may be that the most striking thing about members of my literary generation in retrospect will be that we were allowed to say absolutely anything without fear of punishment.

I don’t know if I officially proofread my father’s book, but I read it. I did get some conception of grammar in general from that.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

I have to write because if I don’t get something down then after a while I feel it’s going to bang the side of my head off.

Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

Boot camp sucks – SEAL training sucks – but you know what? That’s what makes you good.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

Many a man’s strength is in opposition, and when he faileth, he grows out of use.

I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

My rich dad believed we should all learn to take care of ourselves.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

I feel like I’m too busy writing history to read it.

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

For me, it’s about the way I carry myself and the way I treat other people. My relationship and how I feel about God and what He does for me, is something deeply personal. It’s where I came from, my family, I was brought up in a religious household and that’s very important to me.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

He who falls in love with himself will have no rivals.

Everyone must be proactive and do all they can to help themselves to stay employed.

You can never get enough of what you don’t want.

What the country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

There are very few people who are going to look into the mirror and say, ‚That person I see is a savage monster;‘ instead, they make up some construction that justifies what they do.

Culture is the process by which a person becomes all that they were created capable of being.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.

Reactive people… are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

I like pushing boundaries.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

At Cornell University, my professor of European literature, Vladimir Nabokov, changed the way I read and the way I write. Words could paint pictures, I learned from him. Choosing the right word, and the right word order, he illustrated, could make an enormous difference in conveying an image or an idea.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

Think and grow rich.

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

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

To forget one’s purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

The thing about fantasy – there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy.