I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.

Act without expectation.

I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.

Do not look for a sanctuary in anyone except your self.

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

And in my hour of darkness. She is standing right in front of me. Speaking words of wisdom. Let it be.

Don’t take yourself so seriously. You’re just a monkey with a plan.

Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.

In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.

Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.

We accept the love we think we deserve

My deplorable mania for analysis exhausts me. I doubt everything, even my own doubt.

Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.

I’ve learned that home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling.

Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

The problem with revolutions is that they always end right where they begin.

We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.

Too often we love people who don’t love us, but we fail to return the love of others who do.

The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.

You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you.

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

Wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow one’s own advice.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new.

The truly free man is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.

You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

A learning experience is one of those things that says, ’You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.

If there is one question I dread, to which I have never been able to invent a satisfactory reply, it is the question what am I doing.

As far as you can avoid it, do not give grief to anyone. Never inflict your rage on another. If you hope for eternal rest, feel the pain yourself; but don’t hurt others.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.

The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly.

I am a collection of dismantled almosts.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

We are enriched not by what we possess, but by what we can do without.

Boredom is desire seeking desire.

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now, take what’s left and live it properly. What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.

We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.

The real problem of humanity is the following: We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology.

What’s right is what’s left if you do everything else wrong.

Focus is a matter of deciding what things you’re not going to do.

We don’t value things; we value their meaning. What they are is determined by the laws of physics, but what they mean is determined by the laws of psychology.

One who is too insistent on his own views, finds few to agree with him.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people. There is no more mistaken path to happiness than worldliness.

Our span of life is brief, but is long enough for us to live well and honestly.

In order to understand the world, one has to turn away from it on occasion.

Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.

Don’t stumble over something behind you.

The creation of the world did not take place once and for all time, but takes place every day.

The only secret of magic is that I’m willing to work harder on it than you think it’s worth.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

The only man who never makes mistakes is the man who never does anything.

It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

Poverty is when large efforts produce small results. Wealth is when small efforts produce large results.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

No man is more unhappy than he who never faces adversity. For he is not permitted to prove himself

Most people are far too much occupied with themselves to be malicious.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.

The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

Wish not so much to live long as to live well.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.

If you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

Silence is a true friend who never betrays.

We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.

Mostly it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.

If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.

Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz.

The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

Software is like sex: it’s better when it’s free.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Amateurs hack systems; professionals hack people.

The thing about resentment and anger as fuel [for motivation] is that it does burn bright, but it also burns dirty.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

Wisdom comes from experience. Experience is often a result of lack of wisdom.

The human capacity for self pity is truly endless.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.

Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind, always.

Don’t fight with the pillow, but lay down your head, and kick every worriment out of the bed.

Look at your habits: Are they the product of innumerable little cowardices and laziness… or of your courage and inventive reason?

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.

When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.

The past is over; the present is fleeting; we live in the future.