Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions.

In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.

Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.

When you actively engage in gradually refining yourself, you retreat from your lazy ways of covering yourself or making excuses. Instead of feeling a persistent current of low-level shame, you move forward by using the creative possibilities of this moment, your current situation.

No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.

God has made all men to be happy.

Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.