The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it’s hard.

Laughter heals all wounds, and that’s one thing that everybody shares. No matter what you’re going through, it makes you forget about your problems. I think the world should keep laughing.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there’s nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.

The finest clothing made is a person’s own skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this.

There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.

Housework never really bothered me… what bothered me about it later was that it was expected to be your life… when you’re a housewife, you are constantly interrupted. You have no space in your life. It isn’t the fact that you do the laundry.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

Drunkenness is temporary suicide.

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

We live in an imperfect world, and imperfect people surround us every day.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

I would probably have more in common with a whale than with a bourgeois married couple employed at worthy institutions that I would wipe from the face of the earth if it was given to me to do so.

When I’m up there, and I know the show’s coming to a close, in my head I’m saying to myself, Oh man, you gotta get off and be a normal person again. That’s what I don’t like so much.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

We do not want the men of another color for our brothers-in-law, but we do want them for our brothers.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

There’s strong data that, within companies, the No. 1 reason for ethical violations is the pressure to meet expectations, sometimes unrealistic expectations.

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

In America everybody is of the opinion that he has no social superiors, since all men are equal, but he does not admit that he has no social inferiors, for, from the time of Jefferson onward, the doctrine that all men are equal applies only upwards, not downwards.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It’s good for them.

Look at our society. Everyone wants to be thin, but nobody wants to diet. Everyone wants to live long, but few will exercise. Everybody wants money, yet seldom will anyone budget or control their spending.

I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.

Meditation is difficult for many people because their thoughts are always on some distant object or place. One form of meditation is to label the thought as it appears and then choose to let it go.

Why should I stop working? If I do, I’ll die and it’ll all be finished.

I’ve been searching for ways to heal myself, and I’ve found that kindness is the best way.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Society can overlook murder, adultery or swindling; it never forgives preaching of a new gospel.

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.

Take me, I am the drug; take me, I am hallucinogenic.

If we weren’t all crazy, we’d just go insane.

People have different emotional levels. Especially when you’re young.

Poverty is a veil that obscures the face of greatness. An appeal is a mask covering the face of tribulation.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

I don’t have many sad days.

People have so much going on in their heads. I’m like, If you could write a song, you’d feel so much better!

Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings.

It is always consoling to think of suicide: in that way one gets through many a bad night.

I always teach myself calm and visualization stuff.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

MySpace is an addiction.

The dieting wars have got to stop.

I love having an unlimited supply of cocoa butter.

All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume.