The fact of the matter is that whether it's in London or Egypt or Turkey or New York or Washington, we have to pay the price of guarding ourself, which is internal vigilance.
When we come to understand nature, we are touching the most deep and most important parts of ourself.
A friend is a beloved mystery; dearest always because he is not ourself, and has something in him which it is impossible for us to fathom. If it were not so, friendship would lose its chief zest.
The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other.
You know, if Kelly Clarkson wants to do country albums because that's what inspires her, then let her do it. Look at Kanye West or Ludacris... they aren't rappin' and cussin' like they were on their first few albums, so what does that make them? It's all in the eye of the beholder and the listener. We all use our outlet to grow ourself.
Every one of us have things that we believe about ourselves when nobody else is looking, nobody else is listening, nobody else is monitoring what we're doing. We believe things about ourself.
We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.
When we obey God, we're not doing it for God... we're doing it for ourself. Because God takes pleasure when we're happy.
It's normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self's agenda.
The soul is so far from being a monad that we have not only to interpret other souls to ourself but to interpret ourself to ourself.