Pain is not a punishment; pleasure is not a reward.

Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

Be kinder to yourself. And then let your kindness flood the world.

Being satisfied with what we already have is a magical golden key to being alive in a full, unrestricted, and inspired way.

So war and peace start in the human heart. Whether that heart is open or whether that heart closes has global implications.

It isn't what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it's what we say to ourselves about what happens.

All you need to know is that the future is wide open and you are about to create it by what you do.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

Feel the feelings and drop the story.

The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

All situations teach you, and often it's the tough ones that teach you best.

I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.

Every sacrifice I make is for the good of my Clan—and for the other Clans around the lake. Even if that means sacrificing myself.

A little man makes a mistake and they hang him by the thumbs; the big ones become ambassadors.

But prosperity without a soul is like a corpse whose heart has stopped beating. There is no life, only consumption.

I hesitated for all the right reasons. And I accepted for all the wrong ones.

And when you're on your own there is that terrifying possibility that you may be the only person on the planet who thinks it's funny - and you have no way of finding out.

Everyone wants to work in America. Maybe not blockbusters or Terminator, but to have the choice.

We live in a time where it's more surprising if people are actually together than if they're having affairs.

The happy and the suffering probably understand life equally well, but the sufferers may see a little more clearly how little it is that they understand.

We are not getting rid of carriers any time soon. This is both because of their utility and also because of their role in Navy culture and in the defense-industrial complex. It is an academic debate.