I wouldn't consider myself a Buddhist or a card-carrying zealot at all. My first commitment is as a scientist to uncover the truth about all this.

Meditation gives you the wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind can exaggerate the severity of a setback, and resist getting drawn into the abyss.

The key to a healthy life is having a healthy mind.

We need a different conception of happiness, more enduring and more genuine, not dependent on external circumstances.

Most people still don't think of qualities like happiness as being a skill, that can be enhanced through training.

Our brain is continuously being shaped - we can take more responsibility for our own brain by cultivating positive influences.

The Dalai Lama challenged me - he said, 'Why can't you use technological tools to study kindness and compassion?

The best way I can mentor and lead those around me is to embody these qualities myself.

Spatial working memory is impaired by stress.

Happiness and well-being are actually best regarded as skills.

We can change the brain by changing the mind.

The soul that knows suffering, understand the grace of solitude.

Emotions tend to get in the way of a good argument.

I proposed to my wife on Brighton Beach, and she said yes. That's pretty romantic. Even though I forgot to go down on one knee because I was too busy trying to compose the question.

You know when ubuntu is there, and it is obvious when it is absent. It has to do with what it means to be truly human, to know that you are bound up with others in the bundle of life.

If anyone's comments affect anyone that much, I think it's more about their own security with themselves, because you can call me whatever, and I'm going to be good.

Kids need to know they're the most important thing in the world to you, and if that means quitting your job to prove it, then you have to prove it.

Modesty is a vastly overrated virtue.

Artists should be aware that petty stroking could be the source of arrested productivity. An artist's job includes the avoidance of premature closure by the begged or gratuitous approval of others.

Attack life, it's going to kill you anyway.

One of our defects as a nation is a tendency to use what have been called "weasel words."