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

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.

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.

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.

We can change the brain by changing the mind.

We tend to deny our humanity because in accepting the fullness of it, we would need to confess how little we’ve done with it.

Let thy holy temple be thy body.

Fear is the single strongest motivating force in our lives. ... The more frightened you become the better your chances of achieving success.

Progress means taking risks for you can't steal home and keep your foot on third base.

Until MTV, television had not been a huge influence on music. To compete with MTV, the country music moguls felt they had to appeal to the same young audience and do it the way MTV did.

I don't mind what language an opera is sung in so long as it is the language I don't understand.

There are some people who think you have to hate them in order to shoot them. I don't think you do. It's just business.

Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.

When we neglect the artist in ourselves, there is a kind of mourning that goes on under the surface of our busy lives.

All things are created twice; first mentally; then physically. The key to creativity is to begin with the end in mind, with a vision and a blue print of the desired result.