‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

If I had only one sermon to preach it would be a sermon against pride.

There’s many ups and downs in the fight game.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

I’ve heard there are troubles of more than one kind; some come from ahead, and some come from behind. But I’ve brought a big bat. I’m all ready, you see; now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

I like the fact that Melbourne always seems to support their chefs and promote them in ways I find really admirable.

I am not the first Buddha who came upon Earth, nor shall I be the last. In due time, another Buddha will arise in the world – a Holy One, a supremely enlightened One, endowed with wisdom in conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men, a master of angels and mortals.

Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibilities. Everybody struggles in different ways.

Peace begins with a smile.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

It’s important that we invest in America – literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can’t let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

Romania, which had the worst dictator in Eastern Europe, Ceausescu, he was a darling of the West. The United States and Britain loved him. He was supported until the last minute.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

To help a friend in need is easy, but to give him your time is not always opportune.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

By any accepted standard, I have had more than nine lives. I counted them up once, and there were 13 times I almost and maybe should have died.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.

Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.

A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not to be endured with patient resignation.

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

We have communion with Christ in His thoughts, views, and purposes; for His thoughts are our thoughts according to our capacity and sanctity. Believers take the same view of matters as Jesus does; that which pleases Him pleases them, and that which grieves His grieves them also.

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

Nothing becomes so offensive so quickly as grief. When fresh it finds someone to console it, but when it becomes chronic, it is ridiculed, and rightly.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

To suffer the penalty of too much haste, which is too little speed.

It is not my nature, when I see a people borne down by the weight of their shackles – the oppression of tyranny – to make their life more bitter by heaping upon them greater burdens; but rather would I do all in my power to raise the yoke than to add anything that would tend to crush them.

A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon.

A physician is not angry at the intemperance of a mad patient, nor does he take it ill to be railed at by a man in fever. Just so should a wise man treat all mankind, as a physician does his patient, and look upon them only as sick and extravagant.

The way is long if one follows precepts, but short… if one follows patterns.

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?

We had problems like all families but we had a lot of love. I was extremely loved. We always felt we had each other.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.

The problem with having a sense of humor is often that people you use it on aren’t in a very good mood.

I’m blessed to have such a tight-knit family that we can talk about anything. Whether we talk frequently or not, since we’re on separate ends of the country, there are a lot of moving parts, and we always stay tight and find that center ground that keeps us together.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

I don’t keep people around me that aren’t family. You don’t get to stay. Unless you’re eating at the table with us, you’re not part. We eat together, we cry together, we live together, we die together. Everything that we do is for each other, and we care for another.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

No memory of having starred atones for later disregard, or keeps the end from being hard.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.