“Let your occupations be few," says the sage, "if you would lead a tranquil life.”

“Dear friend, if it be your’s to have in some deep vale a home,
Where you may dream of faith and fate, and all the great, to come.
If such a place of tranquil rest be to your future given,
Where every hour of solitude is consecrate to heaven,
Oh, leave it not! let this vain life fret its few hours afar,
Where joy departs, and glory mocks the wide world’s weary war
Let not its rude and angry tide with jarring torrent wake
The silence that the poplars love, of your own limpid lake.”

“You’ve gotta keep control of your time, and you can’t unless you say no. You can’t let people set your agenda in life.”

“You let a possibility into your mind, you let it into your life.”

“How would your life be different if … You didn't allow yourself to be defined by your past? Let today be the day … You stop letting your history interfere with your destiny and awaken to the opportunity to release your greatest self.”

“I would like to suggest to you that you ‘grab life by the horns’ and do not let life grab you by the horns. You take control of your lives. … Do not let life control you. … Take charge. Rise to the divinity that is within you.”

“Let go of a small part of your righteousness and in a few days you will be at peace.”

“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.”

“I think of death only with tranquility, as an end. I refuse to let death hamper life. Death must enter life only to define it.”

“I'd say exercising self-control is very important for a dissolute life. You don't need to control your drug intake to lead a free life. Whether you take no drugs at all or everything you can get your hands on, a free life is separated from that.”