“Anyone who can’t learn from other people’s mistakes simply can’t learn, and that’s all there is to it. There is value in the wrong way of doing things. The knowledge gained from errors contributes to our knowledge base.”

“No, world! You are not going to do this to me any longer. I am not going to live on this crazy merry-go-round with no way off of it. I know what I am supposed to do, and I am going to do it. If you don't like it, talk to God. He is the One Who put this vision in me, and I am not going to frustrate myself all my life just to please you.”

“Riches are shy and timid. They have to be "attracted.”

“...never [enter] into dispute or argument with another. I never saw an instance of one of two disputants convincing the other by argument. I have seen many, on their getting warm, becoming rude, & shooting one another. ... When I hear another express an opinion which is not mine, I say to myself, he has a right to his opinion, as I to mine; why should I question it? His error does me no injury, and shall I become a Don Quixote, to bring all men by force of argument to one opinion? ... There are two classes of disputants most frequently to be met with among us. The first is of young students, just entered the threshold of science, with a first view of its outlines, not yet filled up with the details & modifications which a further progress would bring to their knoledge. The other consists of the ill-tempered & rude men in society, who have taken up a passion for politics. ... Consider yourself, when with them, as among the patients of Bedlam, needing medical more than moral counsel. Be a listener only, keep within yourself, and endeavor to establish with yourself the habit of silence, especially on politics. In the fevered state of our country, no good can ever result from any attempt to set one of these fiery zealots to rights, either in fact or principle. They are determined as to the facts they will believe, and the opinions on which they will act. Get by them, therefore, as you would by an angry bull; it is not for a man of sense to dispute the road with such an animal.”

“A few years ago, honesty was the hallmark of a man of good character. But it’s been set aside for an “It’s all right if you don’t get caught” philosophy.”

“It’s better to have a great team with a weak dream than a great dream with a weak team. Your team must be the size of your dream.”

“God creates us free, free to be selfish, but He adds a mechanism that will penetrate our selfishness and wake us up to the presence of others in this world, and that mechanism is called suffering.”

“the most important relationship you will ever have is with yourself. You’ve got to be your own best friend first.”

“No one can understand that mysterious thing we call influence . . . yet . . . everyone of us continually exerts influence, either to heal, to bless, to leave marks of beauty; or to wound, to hurt, to poison, to stain other lives.”

“In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East -- especially in India -- I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening wihtout a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving -- it is not in the result of loving. 

“The absence of brutality and unregenerate evil is not the presence of justice. To stay murder is not the same thing as to ordain brotherhood.”

“Spring is the time of plans and projects.”

“It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity.”

“No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ”

“To speak of it would be giving importance to something that has none.”