“When you release the illusion of control, you begin an effortless free-fall toward a grand reunion with your original self.”
“Western freedom is a sophisticated form of control.”
“there was a time when this home was her domain. Sometimes she felt proud of it, sometimes she felt tied to it, but whether it was a burden or a blessing, it was hers to keep. She’d known better than anyone what this house needed; lately it’d become one of the few aspects of her life she could control. there is no corner, no ridge along the steps or crack along the wall, that she doesn’t know like her own body. the house may never have been the sanctuary she’d always dreamed of, but at least it carried no surprises. It was comfortable.”
“Control is the basis of all true power. Authority and strength are matters of perception”
“Healing is a different type of pain. It’s the pain of becoming aware of the power of one’s strength and weakness, of one’s capacity to love or do damage to oneself and to others, and of how the most challenging person to control in life is ultimately yourself.”
“It is invisible hands that torment and bend us the worst”
“Fear owns me because I let it. Because I obsess over it, name it, raise it, and nurture it to become perfect. It is one of the few things in my life that I can control.”
“A leader did not slump. A leader was in control. Even when he least felt like he controlled anything. Especially then.”
“We have absolutely no control over what happens to us in life but what we have paramount control over is how we respond to those events.”
“Have you ever thought that if one thing hadn t happened, a whole set of things never would have either? Like dominoes in time, a single event kicked off an unstoppable series of changes that gained momentum and spun out of control, and nothing was ever the same again. Don t ever doubt that a mere second can change your life forever.”
“I can t bear the thought of living an entire lifetime on this planet and not getting to do all the things I dream of doing, simply because they aren t allowed. I don t think it will ever be enough, this version of freedom, until it is all-inclusive. I don t think I can be happy unless I m truly independent.”
“That our world is so massive that it is completely out of our control, that we cannot possibly be as large as we feel.”
“The way to control circumstances is to control the forces within yourself to make a greater man of yourself, and as you become greater and more competent, you will naturally gravitate into better circumstances. In this connection, we should remember that like attracts like. If you want that which is better, make yourself better. If you want to realize the ideal, make yourself more ideal. If you want better friends, make yourself a better friend. If you want to associate with people of worth, make yourself more worthy. If you want to meet that which is agreeable, make yourself more agreeable. If you want to enter conditions and circumstances that are more pleasing, make yourself more pleasing. In brief, whatever you want, produce that something in yourself, and you will positively gravitate towards the corresponding conditions in the external world.”
“You can overcome your circumstances or you can let your circumstances overcome you.”
“The truth is that most of life will unfold in accordance with forces far outside your control, regardless of what your mind says about it”
“The act of tattooing one s skin was a tranformative declaration of power, an announcment to the world: I am in control of my own flesh.”
“Morals are nothing but a civilized society’s attempt to tame some beast called man.”