“Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, we are always free to choose our thoughts.”

Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment.

Success, like happiness, is the unexpected side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself.

Being tolerant does not mean that I share another one’s belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another one’s right to believe, and obey, his own conscience.

We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: 1. by doing a deed; 2. by experiencing a value; and 3. by suffering.

A man’s concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.

Either belief in God is unconditional or it is no belief at all.

There are two races of men in this world but only these two: the race of the decent man and the race of the indecent man.

It isn’t the past which holds us back, it’s the future; and how we undermine it, today.

It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions.

Pain is only bearable if we know it will end, not if we deny it exists.

The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living.

There was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.

Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.

The quest for meaning is the key to mental health and human flourishing

God is the partner of your most intimate soliloquies.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.

Despite our strongly felt kinship and oneness with nature, all the evidence suggests that nature doesn’t care one whit about us.

I found out the hard way that if we don’t disciple people, the culture sure will.

Despite its name, the big bang theory is not really a theory of a bang at all.

This is true despite the significant poverty, and the class and geographic inequality that have deep historical roots.

Illiteracy does not impede the practice of democracy, as witnessed by the success of democracy in India despite the high illiteracy rate.

There is a lightening in our bones and wildfire in our spirits and we will find a way despite it all to survive and thrive.

Ghosts of the person you used to be are so proud of who you are, they live on inside you applauding you for living on despite your scars.

I once asked the most fabulous couple I know, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, how they kept things fresh despite having been married for almost seven months. ‘It’s a job, Al,’ Guy told me. ‘We work at it every day.’