“Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.”

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.

Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.

It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.

It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.

Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.

If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Desire and happiness cannot live together.

Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

We can’t control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.

It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.

Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them.

When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.

Winners don’t just learn the fundamentals, they master them. You have to monitor your fundamentals constantly because the only thing that changes will be your attention to them.

The reader, the booklover, must meet his own needs without paying too much attention to what his neighbors say those needs should be.

You were created on purpose for a purpose. There is a thirst and hunger in your heart that is real. Pay attention to it.

Why is patience so important? Because it makes us pay attention.

The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent.

Stay mad, but behave like normal people. Run the risk of being different, but learn to do so without attracting attention.