"You must become the producer, director and actor in the unfolding story of your life."

"Mirrors that hide nothing hurt me. But this is the hurt of purging and precious renewal - and these are the mirrors of dangerous grace."

"Many's the man/ who thought himself wise/ but what he needed/ he did not know..."

"Listen. Pay attention. Treasure every moment."

"Behold, the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket" - which is but a matter of saying, "Scatter your money and your attention"; but the wise man saith, "Pull all your eggs in the one basket and - WATCH THAT BASKET." - Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar"

"For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us."

"Whatever you want to be in life, you're training for it right now."

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent."

"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth."

"Where lowland is, that's where water goes. All medicine wants is pain to cure."

"People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about "these days," imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "these days" and that human nature changes with the times."

"I remember my youth and the feeling that will never come back any more /the feeling that I could last for ever, outlast the sea, the earth, and all men; the deceitful feeling that lures us on to joys, to perils, to love, to vain effort /to death; the triumphant conviction of strength, the heat of life in the handful of dust, the glow in the heart that with every year grows dim, grows cold, grows small, and expires /and expires, too soon, too soon /before life itself"

"....it is of the very essence of Christianity to face suffering and death not because they are good, not because they have meaning, but because the resurrection of Jesus has robbed them of their meaning."

"There are questions I'm still not wise enough to answer, just wise enough to no longer ask."

"Perhaps the hardest lesson to learn is not to be attached to the results of your actions."

"Once a wolf, always a wolf."

"Never pause unless you have a reason for it, but when you pause, pause as long as you can."

"Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!"

"Tell no man anything, for no man listensYet hold thy lips ready to speak."

"What we have to learn, in both meditation and in life, is to be free ofattachment to the good experiences, and free of aversion to the negative ones."

"Wisdom can be gathered on your downtime. Wisdom that can change the very course of your life will come from the people you are around, the books you read, and the things you listen to or watch on radio or television. Of course, bad information is gathered in your downtime too. Bad information that can change the very course of your life will come from the people you are around, the books you read, and the things you listen to or watch on radio or television. One of wisdom's greatest benefits, is accurate discernment- the learned ability to immediately tell right from wrong. Good from evil. Acceptable from unacceptable. Time well spent from time wasted. The right decision from the wrong decision. And many times this is simply a matter of having the correct perspective. One way to define wisdom is THE ABILITY TO SEE, INTO THE FUTURE, THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR CHOICES IN THE PRESENT. That ability can give you a completely different perspective on what the future might look like... with a degree of intelligence and a hint of wisdom, most people can tell the difference between good and bad. However, it takes a truly wise person to discern the oh-so-thin line between good and best. And that line...[gives you the] perspective that allows you to see clearly the long-term consequences of your choices."

"Don't assume the world evolved in the order in which you discovered it."