I maintain a balanced view of the world, but that balance is always in my favour.
The ego says, I shouldn't have to suffer, and that thought makes you suffer so much more.
The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.
Here is a new spiritual practice for you: don't take your thoughts too seriously.
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.
All negativity is caused by an accumulation of psychological time and denial of the present. Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry - all forms of fear - are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.
Stop looking outside for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, or love - you have a treasure within that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.
While it is always possible to wake a person who's sleeping, no amount of noise will wake a person who is pretending to be asleep.
These newspaper reporters. . . ever since Sullivan versus New York Times. . . have got a license to lie.
The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.
The antithesis between a technical and a liberal education is fallacious. There can be no adequate technical education which is not liberal, and no liberal education which is not technical.