You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.

I’m just trying to be myself. I’m not trying to be anyone else.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.

I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as ‚us‘ and ‚them‘ – he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above… he knows that we all love our country… and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas… he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

I never make conscious decisions.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

I think the most important thing is to keep active and to hope that your mind stays active.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.

The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.

Mind over mattress.

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.

But men must know, that in this theatre of man’s life it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

The deferring of anger is the best antidote to anger.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

You don’t sign up for a divorce when you get married. It’s very painful. But it’s taught me a great deal about myself.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

I don’t know what ‚normal‘ means, anyway.

Knowing that you are going to die is, I suspect, the beginning of wisdom.

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.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

Things have never been more like the way they are today in history.

I have found that no exertion of the legs can bring two minds much nearer to one another.

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

I just feel like, with rappers, there’s so much complacency. It’s like, ‚Oh, I’m a rapper. I’m successful. I make money. That’s all that matters.‘ But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you’re aware of it, it’s happening.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

September 11 shocked many Americans into an awareness that they had better pay much closer attention to what the U.S. government does in the world and how it is perceived. Many issues have been opened for discussion that were not on the agenda before. That’s all to the good.

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

Dying is one of the few things that can be done as easily lying down.

Compassionate listening is to help the other side suffer less. If we realize that other people are the same people as we are, we are no longer angry at them.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can’t package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

I have a strong feeling that I shall be glad when I am dead and done for – scrapped at last to make room for somebody better, cleverer, more perfect than myself.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

God created man, but I could do better.

In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves.

Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.

I wish I knew why I am so anguished.

Don’t wait for the last judgment – it takes place every day.

The happiest moments are when we sit down and we feel the presence of our brothers and sisters, lay and monastic, who are practicing walking and sitting meditation.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

I think we’ve taken the meaning of Christmas out. People don’t stop and think about Jesus or the birth of Jesus. When they think of Christmas, they think of Santa Claus and – for the children, and they think of giving gifts and out-giving the next person of spending their time looking for the right thing for somebody who has everything.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug, especially when its waving a razor sharp hunting knife in your eye.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.