Laziness is always your fault. It is the sign that a man has persevered in uselessness for too long.

Study the assumptions behind your actions. Then study the assumptions behind your assumptions.

The secret of Sufism is that it has no secret at all'.

When a belief becomes more than an instrument, you are lost. You remain lost until you learn what 'belief' is really for.

Premature independence is the daughter of conceit.

Do not try to be humble: learn humility.

No practice exists in isolation.

If your desire for 'good' is based on greed, it is not good, but greed.

Anybody or anything may stand between you and knowledge if you are unfit for it.

Exercise power by means of kindness, and you may be causing more damage than you could by cruelty. Neither approach is correct.

If you really want to learn, do not be surprised if someone tries to teach you. And do not lightly reject the method.

Genocide, after all, is an exercise in community building.

Sometimes what we don't wish for is more powerful than what we do.

It is so much more threatening to have something out of hand than to believe that at any moment I can stop (I started to say "This foolishness") any time I need to.

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

There's more than just racism. There's ageism and sexism as well.

My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.

Not only does God play dice with the universe, He's using loaded dice.

I'm a huge fan of John Malkovich and Josh Brolin, and Michael Shannon has got to be one of my favorite actors.

This concern which interests us more than anything else: the blurring of the distinction between art and life.

My teacher said once that every man faces seven enemies in his lifetime. Sickness, hunger, betrayal, envy, greed, old age, and then death.