Howard Jacobson Quotes

When I do martial arts, I feel like its inward facing. Like, I'm improving myself, I'm getting healthier. It's almost like mindfulness for something.

I used to try to run five miles every other day, which I worked up to and I was doing it, but I was subjected to my own thoughts for forty minutes without any sensory input, and I couldn't stand what I thought.

A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.

We can't determine our emotions, but we can choose our attitudes and actions.

The world sometimes feels like an insane asylum. You can decide whether you want to be an inmate or pick up your visitor's badge. You can be in the world but not engage in the melodrama of it; you can become a spiritual being having a human experience thoroughly and fully.

A body that doesn't move mentally or physically dies.

If you really care about your body, then your mind starts to work better.

As far as our physical form, the mind is a great temple. But it has a life span and it dies.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It's a way of life for me.

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

I still have to work on my weight and some of my other demons.

Behaviors are a choice. Feelings are sometimes out of our control. Behavior has to do with choices.

Anybody can have this body if you do enough sit-ups and you just make a decision that 'Every day, I'm going to work out.' There are some days that I just don't feel like doing it, and I don't. But more often than not I get up and I get on the treadmill that I want to shoot and just do it. The first 20 minutes are the hardest.

I had a trainer during 'Spiderman,' and I discovered I have deep-seated rage when I'm holding heavy weights over my head. Whatever dormant anger I have in me, that's where it comes out. That's not the kind of working out I want to do.

Remember this: your body is your slave; it works for you.

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

If you really want to get in shape, you can't have those days where you feel weak.

I've started doing my Kathak, and I rehearse every day. Also, I'm eating right and keeping in shape. I'm a non-smoker and non-drinker and essentially a happy person. That's what counts the most. Your well-being is reflected in your personality.

The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.

Once you get in a position where your rent is taken care of and you do have a job, you really get to deal with yourself and really become one with yourself. And you wake to your mind every day. That's your best friend and your worst enemy - your own brain.

When I grew up, I studied karate for years. I got pretty strong, but eventually I had to acknowledge that I really didn't like fighting at all, so I quit.

I learned that working out gives me a space to get clear. It's not just about the body. It gives me space to process things and get clear in my mind about decisions and things I want to do.

Let's face it, I only practice yoga because the classes are always packed with beautiful women.

As I started to pursue the subject more deeply I realized that walking was this wonderful meandering path through everything I was already interested in - gender politics, public space and urban life, demonstrations and parades and marches. The relationship between walking and thinking and between the mind and the body.

I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive.