When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'.

I've come to believe that all my past failure and frustration were actually laying the foundation for the understandings that have created the new level of living I now enjoy.

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

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

You laugh at me because I'm different, I laugh at you because you're all the same.

Work is the price which is paid for reputation.

Everything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.

The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Only from the heart can you touch the sky.

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens

He who chooses the beginning of the road chooses the place it leads to.

Desire is the very essence of man.

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.

It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

You place too much importance... on the so-called purity of blood! You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!