Carlos Castaneda Quotes

I know how strong I am mentally, how I work on myself.

Victory in physical battles requires strength, muscles, and skill; but the fight is never tougher and victory is never sweeter than in the battles over self.

The only one who can beat me is me.

You cannot lead others until you have first learned to lead yourself.

You have to go out there and focus on yourself and not who you are up against.

We can't focus too much on the opponent, we have to focus on ourselves.

We don't focus on our rivals: we focus on ourselves.

The highest strength is acquired not in overcoming the world, but in overcoming one's self. Learn to be cruel to thyself, to withstand thy appetites, to bear thy sufferings, and thou shalt become free and able.

I focus on myself, that's how I beat Wladimir Klitschko.

In the end, it's a mental maturity to let your best come out.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

There is no real security except for whatever you build inside yourself.

Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn't just skills like computer technology. It's the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.

Winning isn't getting ahead of others. It's getting ahead of yourself.

I don't lack confidence. I don't sweat. I don't want to get too Zen on you, but I have to run my own race.

I will not be concerned at other men's not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It is precisely that simple, and it is also that difficult.

There's a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

I practice martial arts not to win over other people but to win over my own heart.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves... self-discipline with all of them came first.

You must rouse into people's consciousness their own prudence and strength, if you want to raise their character.

Study strategy over the years and achieve the spirit of the warrior. Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.

How well I walk my talk, and not talk my talk, determines the quality of my engagement, of all my experience with what is quite personally my God. I'm my greatest teacher, and within me, I have the power to push myself deeper and higher.

I've never really been aware of what is said about me, whether it's positive or negative. I ignore it. I've always had the mind-set: 'No one can challenge me better than myself.'

Changing what you don't like about yourself can be empowering, and that's not a bad thing. Feeling secure enough to own what is weak and missing from either your body, mind or spirit and to commit to action to change it is a good thing.