I was once a fortunate man but at some point fortune abandoned me. But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Love isn't all sparks and firecrackers. Sometimes it’s more subtle than that.

Do not go where you don’t belong. I scoffed. That sounded like an invitation if I ever heard one.

A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.

Not only our moral life, but even our use of theoretical reason - on which we rely in rationally inquiring into nature - presupposes that we are free.

I made practice runs down to skid row to get ready for my future.

I do bookstore signings, and it seems to me that I get a variety of men and women, more women than I'd expect, and grown-ups among my readers.

I am convinced that it will not be long before the whole world acknowledges the results of my work.

My father was a patriarch inside a matriarchy, but never knew it.

A collection of huts surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and in the huts lived 500 of the original inhabitants of our area. And so it went with many country towns around Australia.

I made two movies before The Police had a hit record: I did Quadrophenia and a film called Radio On.