It is not enough to have a good mind; the main thing is to use it well.

Desire is poverty. Desire is the greatest impurity of the mind. Desire is the motive force for action. Desire in the mind is the real impurity. Even a spark of desire is a very great evil.

There is an art, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

Every aquarium will eventually leak.

The only real laughter comes from despair.

If you don't behave as you believe, you will end by believing as you behave.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don't honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Drop the idea of becoming someone, because you are already a masterpiece. You cannot be improved. You have only to come to it, to know it, to realize it.

I write with experiences in mind, but I don't write about them, I write out of them.

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

Resist much. Obey little.

Life's battles don't always go to the stronger or faster man. But sooner or later, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.

If you place your head in a lion's mouth, then you cannot complain one day if he happens to bite it off.

The ethos of redemption is realized in self-mastery, by means of temperance, that is, continence of desires.

My meditation is simple. It does not require any complex practices. It is simple. It is singing. It is dancing. It is sitting silently.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope.

We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid

Wisdom... comes not from age, but from education and learning.

Better beggar woman and single than Queen and married.

There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.