All experiences are preceded by mind, having mind as their master, created by mind.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.

The one who has conquered himself is a far greater hero than he who has defeated a thousand times a thousand men.

Transcendental intelligence rises when the intellectual mind reaches its limit and if things are to be realized in their true and essential nature, its processes of thinking must be transcended by an appeal to some higher faculty of cognition.

I will not look at another’s bowl intent on finding fault: a training to be observed.

The external world is only a manifestation of the activities of the mind itself, and the mind grasps it as an external world simply because of its habit of discrimination and false-reasoning. The disciple must get into the habit of looking at things truthfully.

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

“For soon the body is discarded, Then what does it feel? A useless log of wood, it lies on the ground, Then what does it know? Your worst enemy cannot harm you As much as your own thoughts, unguarded. But once mastered, No one can help you as much, Not even your father or your mother.”

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

“There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.”

“Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.”

There is no path to happiness: happiness is the path.

Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself and others.

The enlightened one, intent on jhana, should find delight in the forest, should practice jhana at the foot of a tree, attaining his own satisfaction.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

It is in the nature of things that joy arises in a person free from remorse.

Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again, and you will be filled with joy.

You want the world to be set up for you, but sometimes it just isn't.

CP is a struggle, but it's also been quite the tool for me to find success and deliver a message. It's something about me that's unique, so it'll open a few doors as well as keep a few closed. If you have the other tools that you develop as an individual, talents, things like that, you can harness this to do positive things in the world.

There's a tendency to treat anyone with a physical disability as inspiring. I call it a pedestal of prejudice, in that you're lifting people up to dismiss them. My whole thing is bringing us down to everyone else's level and saying we're all the same. The struggle is the same.

You can never walk a mile in someone elses shoes, but you can walk a mile in your own and be proud of it.

I think that's where it comes into play, when you are just looking at a document or whatever and you see the word "disability." Does that automatically trigger something in you that denies someone their personhood?

If everything was perfect, it would always be a person-first conversation, but whenever I have the opportunity, I lead with my personality. If they're looking and seeing the disability first or the chair first, I know that I have the ability to change that.

When I read the script [of Glee], the whole premise was that all the high school kids were being cruel to this kid in the wheelchair, and then the quarterback comes along and has a heart of gold and takes him out of a Porta Potty. That's too often what I see in media, that the characters with disabilities are there to make other people seem like heroes for treating the character with a disability with respect. Those are the kinds of roles that are out there.

You really just have to have a good attitude, challenge yourself, and you can accomplish great things.

We did a book signing and people came up to me. There was an expectant mother who was like, "I think we might name our child Zach because of your work."

We'd done a couple of road trips with my big chair, and it was such a hassle if we didn't have the van with the foldout ramp. I figured: There's got to be some option that I can use on the go. Now I can go anywhere with my friends, which is a big, life-changing thing. I can sit on it for as long as I need to.

The most important thing is to have the conversation, and let people who do make mistakes feel comfortable enough to continue the conversation.

Writing was not my medium. I preferred to do video.

You may not have a physical impairment, but you have things, whether it's finances, self-esteem, it doesn't matter. It's cut from the same cloth.

No Atlantis is too underwater or fictional.

What I don't like about the way the media portrays religion is that they seem to weaponize it and use it as a tool to divide people.

I didn't feel like I was putting anything good into the world, even though it was funny. I wanted to do something more positive that would have an impact. So even when I'm doing naked push-ups or whatever, it's astounding to see how people respond to it.

Technically I can get out of my wheelchair and crawl around and do things, but when I've traveled and they've lost my wheelchair in transit, I feel like I need to be bound to it. My functionality and autonomy are often bound to this.

My experiences of traveling abroad and going to Italy with my father, having to break down a gigantic electric chair to get on trains. You've got three minutes. You go to Pompeii and there are shockingly few accessible hotels in a city that was covered in volcanic ash.

I feel a lot of personal responsibility to undo the negative stereotypes. I know that it's not coming from a bad place. It's coming from an ignorant place. I can sort of be an ambassador in a subtle way to say, "This is what I am: a comedian, a show host, a writer." It will still always be part of the conversation and people will want to focus on it because there is a culture that is so embedded that if you have a disability, you're someone to be either admired just for living, or be pitied for having to struggle.

Call yourself and define your relationship to your chair the way you want to, or your disability the way you want to.

The biggest disabilities are when you sabotage yourself mentally, those personal demons that get on your shoulder and you can't shake 'em.

I thought this should be a travel show, because a lot of people with physical disabilities get discouraged.

“Laughing at somebody is just another way of dismissing them, but laughing with somebody is a bridge to understanding.” 

“In my darkest moments, the “what-if”s bury me and the “if only”s keep me from enjoying what is.” 

The Internet is crazy, and I love it!

Over the years, I learned that in my career, unlike in life, sometimes my wheelchair is its own automatic door opener. I was able to win the OWN competition by applying one simple principle: be funny, and admit you suck before anyone else can call you out on it. In other words, make the narrative of your failure a comedy.

The only two characters I can play convincingly are myself and a dumber and sweeter version of myself.

I'd wanted to be famous for as long as I could remember.

When I get real excited, my muscles go into spasm, so they just shake.

I was basically the person at Disney World that was in charge of clearing the park when it was closed... I was the guy... telling them to 'get the hell out and have a magical day.'