“It is better, proverbially, to rule your own spirit than to rule a city.”

Perhaps you are overvaluing what you don’t have and undervaluing what you do.

See the truth. Tell the truth.

Thus, you should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are.

You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act.

Women select men. That makes them nature, because nature is what selects.

People who know what to expect from one another can act together to tame the world.

When you have something to say, silence is a lie.

When the aristocracy catches a cold, as it is said, the working class dies of pneumonia.

The purpose of life, as far as I can tell, is to find a mode of being that’s so meaningful that the fact that life is suffering is no longer relevant.

True thinking is rare – just like true listening.

To act is literally to manifest preference about one set of possibilities, contrasted with an infinite set of alternatives. If we wish to live, we must act. Acting, we value.

That’s poetic in its malevolence.

Anyone who was out to change the world by changing others was to be regarded with suspicion. The temptations of such a position were too great to be resisted.

What you aim at determines what you see.

Worthlessness is the default condition.

Consciousness is a mystery that faces the mystery of potential and transforms it into actuality. We do that with every choice we make. Our choices determine the destiny of the world. By making a choice, you alter the structure of reality.

A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.

Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. But it cannot achieve its end.

Don’t let anyone control your internal reality.  

When you are with your friends, control your tongue.

We have the power to control what we spread.

No one can touch words but words touch everyone. Our choices of words decide most of the situations we are dealing with, they have an immense power to influence and control life. 

You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.