“The use of self-control is like the use of brakes on the train. It is useful when you find yourself in the wrong direction but merely harmful when the direction is right.”

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

No one ever gossips about the virtues of others.

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.

Men who are unhappy, like men who sleep badly, are always proud of the fact.

To like many people spontaneously and without effort is perhaps the greatest of all sources of personal happiness.

There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our thoughts.

So far as I can remember there is not one word in the gospels in praise of intelligence.

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn’t wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

Love is wise, hatred is foolish.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

Politics is largely governed by sententious platitudes which are devoid of truth.

Love can flourish only as long as it is free and spontaneous; it tends to be killed by the thought of duty. To say that it is your duty to love so-and-so is the surest way to cause you to hate him of her.

You only have control over three things in your life-the thoughts you think, the images you visualise, & the actions you take.

In those moments when we realize how much we cannot control, we can learn to let go.

Stop giving other people the power to control your happiness, your mind, and your life. If you don’t take control of yourself and your own life, someone else is bound to try.

Expect the unexpected. Focus on what you can control and acknowledge what’s out of your control.

To relinquish the futile effort to control change is one of the strengthening forces of true detachment & thus true love.

A heavy burden lifted from my soul, I heard that love was out of my control.

There is hardly a better way to avoid discussion than by releasing an argument from the control of the present and by saying that only the future will reveal its merits.

Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.