There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what the reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

Anger begins in folly, and ends in repentance.

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.

Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached.

It's not a question of learning much.On the contrary.It's a question of UNLEARNING much.

Intelligence is a moral category.

In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have.

Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.

Love make us poets, and the approach of death should make us philosophers.

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.

There is nothing more uncommon than common sense.

Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.

To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

Immoderate desire is the mark of a child, not a man.

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