The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.

The whole universe is contained within a single human being—you.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.

Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life. . . To seek a total unity is wrong. To give as much meaning to one’s life as possible is right to me.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.

The universe is wider than our views of it.

Being aware of a single shortcoming within yourself is far more useful than being aware of a thousand in someone else!

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

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

Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousand of miles and all the years you have lived.

The growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and . . . each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement.

Appearance rules the world.

Death is no more than passing from one room into another. But there's a difference for me, you know. Because in that other room I shall be able to see.

Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much.

I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.

Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care.

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

We can secure other people’s approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.

And God said love your enemy and I obeyed him and loved myself.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.