Learn not to be too ambitious; not to expect if you have a 9-to-5 job and three kids, that you're likely to get buddhahood in one lifetime.

The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.

Meditation is for you to realise that the deepest nature of your existence is beyond thoughts and emotions, that it is incredibly vast and interconnected with all other beings.

If we greet situations with a positive attitude, we will eventually create positive returns. If we respond with a negative attitude, negative things will eventually come our way.

In the very deep darkness of this world, little pinpoints of light show up very brightly and can shine a long way.

Our pure awareness is not male or female.

The first thing is to learn how to quiet the mind, relax the mind, and bring the awareness to the front so that we are conscious of what we're doing when we're doing it without all the commentary.

Develop confidence in your innate qualities and believe that these qualities will be brought to fruition.

The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha.

Even if one isn't a committed Buddhist, it just helps us become better human beings.

We have produced many of our problems through our confused mental states.

If we reflect, we shall recognize.

I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who by all laws of logic should never have made it. At each stage of my career I lacked the experience.

My Brother went to college To become a doctor And if he studies hard enough He'll end up just like papa, who hates his life.

Both the Bush people and [Barack] Obama people had no problem working with the holdovers. They weren't out to get them.

Counting your blessings is a better cure for insomnia than counting sheep - you can fall asleep before you get through half of them.

Your life may have taken a detour, but God is still on the throne. He has brought you this far, and sooner or later, your peace will be restored.

My novels are high concept. I guess big ideas interest me more than, say, the minutiae of domestic life.

The problem today is that there are no deserts, only dude ranches.

Make your judgments and then you don't have to worry about it. You're always going to have those people who are offended about every little thing.

Writing is still like heaving bricks over a wall.