How does a nice Catholic girl end up going to prison for a year? It’s crazy. I’ve made mistakes. I have to pay for those mistakes.

My father probably thought the capital of the world was wherever he was at the time. It couldn’t possibly be anyplace else. Where he and his wife were in their own home, that, for them, was the capital of the world.

Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.

Mine is better than ours.

Key is never be afraid of being yourself. Never!

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I like to recede away from classifications. You might say that indicates a fundamental lack of commitment. I suppose that’s true to some degree.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

If you’re embarrassed because you have some notion about how men are supposed to behave, and it doesn’t include weeping, then you have some personal work to do.

Even with my divorce and with everything, I don’t need money.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

It’s still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

Ordinary readers, forgive my paradoxes: one must make them when one reflects; and whatever you may say, I prefer being a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

I’m no genius.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

I never saw myself as a folk singer.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

When you stop caring what people think, you lose your capacity for connection. When you’re defined by it, you lose our capacity for vulnerability.

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

No driver is perfect.

I believe enlightenment or revelation comes in daily life. I look for joy, the peace of action. You need action. I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

The titanic effort that has brought liberation to South Africa, and ensured the total liberation of Africa, constitutes an act of redemption for the black people of the world.

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

I allow myself to fail. I allow myself to break. I’m not afraid of my flaws.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

You should never give up your inner self.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

Don’t compare yourself with other people; compare yourself with who you were yesterday.

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven’t quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

Any action is often better than no action, especially if you have been stuck in an unhappy situation for a long time. If it is a mistake, at least you learn something, in which case it’s no longer a mistake. If you remain stuck, you learn nothing.

Relationships are the hallmark of the mature person.

Every one goes astray, but the least imprudent are they who repent the soonest.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow blood will leave my body above the breast.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.

We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California.