The most disturbing and wasteful emotions in modern life, next to fright, are those which are associated with the idea of blame, directed against the self or against others.

No one can persuade another to change. Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by agreement or by emotional appeal.

Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.

The mind aware of itself is a pilot... vastly freer than a passenger mind.

Things fall apart, so they can fall together at a higher level of order.

The spiritual quest begins, for most people, as a search for meaning.

The other side of every fear is a freedom.

Of all the self-fulfilling prophecies in our culture, the assumption that aging means decline and poor health is probably the deadliest.

Risk always brings its own rewards: the exhilaration of breaking through, of getting to the other side; the relief of a conflict healed; the clarity when a paradox dissolves.

Making mental connections is our most crucial learning tool, the essence of human intelligence; to forge links; to go beyond the given; to see patterns, relationships, context.

Our biggest failure is our failure to see patterns.

Only two things can reveal life's great secrets: suffering and love.

The man in 4B wondered if he could have your autograph. He told me his daughter is a huge fan.”

Some people have a blissful heart

Why did God give me two ears and one mouth? So that I will hear more and talk less.

We cracked up together, which was necessary, because she loved me again.

I only remember a few things about Jimmy Carter. He had big lips and liked peanuts. I now know that Jimmy Carter was and is a good man.

The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.

I didn't really know what I was doing when I started. I just started writing songs. After two songs I just continued to explore it.

Secretary [John] Kerry has called Civil War [in Syria] an unbelievably small war that we're going to get involved with.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.