“IT’S ONLY AN HOUR” “It is only half an hour — It is only an afternoon — It is only an evening,” people say to me over and over again; but they don’t know that…the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometimes worry a whole day…Whoever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can’t help it; I must go in my way whether or no. Charles Dickens, declining an invitation from a friend. Black Irish JAB #5, “Learning to Say No” I’m with you, Charlie! To drag me out from noon to two is to steal my day. I know the person asking doesn’t realize this. I know there’s no way I can explain it without sounding like a total sonofabitch. But that’s the truth. I’m working! I’ve got stuff to do. I can’t sit around shooting the shit over chips and margaritas. Forget about it.

All material changes in our everyday life are small in comparison with those in our spiritual life.

There could be a change in feelings and actions, there could be a change in thoughts and ideas.

In order to change your thoughts and ideas, you should concentrate your conscious mind on your spiritual requirements.

Every thought a person dwells upon, whether he expresses it or not, either damages or improves his life.

—LUCY MALORY

To vanquish sin, you must accept that the root of each sin is in a bad thought.

We are all only the consequences of what we think.

—BUDDHA

We regret losing a purse full of money, but a good thought which has come to us, which we’ve heard or read, a thought which we should have remembered and applied to our life, which could have improved the world—we lose this thought and promptly forget about it, and we do not regret it, though it is more precious than millions.