Mishaps are like knives that either serve us or cut us as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.

He who has so little knowledge of human natures as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

The clearest way in the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?

We are free up to the point of choice, then the choice controls the chooser.

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the induction of a new order of things.

Unsuccessful people make decisions based on current situations. Successful people make decisions based on where they want to be.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The great decisions of human life have as a rule far more to do with the instincts and other mysterious unconscious factors than with conscious will and well-meaning reasonableness.

I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.