"A steadfast commander remains calm when the storm rages fiercest. Remember this in moments of decisive trial."

"A quiet mind perceives the subtle truths that noisy ambitions constantly drown out — an essential principle for the reflective life."

"When you master your attention, you master your entire perception of reality. Remember this in moments of decisive trial."

"Every scar carries the quiet memory of a battle faced and survived. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"Art is the soul's attempt to give enduring form to the formless. This remains the cornerstone of personal mastery."

"Most sermons sound to me like commercials - but I can't make out whether God is the Sponsor or the Product."

"We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information."

"Men have feverishly conceived a heaven only to find it insipid, and a hell to find it ridiculous."