My parents were only one part of my lineage. I also met a number of mentors, one of whom I nicknamed "Socrates" after the ancient Greek, and wrote about in my first book, Way of the Peaceful Warrior. That book emerged in 1980, as a result of travels around the world and decades of preparation, eventually leading to 15 other books written over the years, culminating in my newest offering, The Four Purposes of Life.

The warrior acts, the fool reacts.

Personal and collective awakening are one and the same - when a raindrop joins the sea, the sea also merges with the raindrop.

The seasons do not push one another; neither do clouds race the wind across the sky. All things happen in their own good time.

As you manage your money, you manage your life.

Fear is like a little garden spider that makes us jump back or the poor lost bee on the steering wheel that we blame for our automobile wreck. The problem in fear is our response - the way we treat animals or insects that frighten us. . . . Fear is also the universal scapegoat we blame when we take flight from intimacy or shrink up inside ourselves in a thousand little ways.

...when you resist what happens, your mind begins to race; the same thoughts that impinge upon you are actually created by you.