Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

Whatever is making you so angry, it’s time for you to give it to God and get over it.

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

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

I’m not a regrets-type person.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

When I look back over my life it’s almost as if there was a plan laid out for me – from the little girl who was so passionate about animals who longed to go to Africa and whose family couldn’t afford to put her through college. Everyone laughed at my dreams. I was supposed to be a secretary in Bournemouth.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

I’ve done some analysis of the biblical stories as part of my psychological work. I knew that I had more to do, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been extremely valuable. It makes me a better teacher because I have a richer understanding of cultural history.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

I have offended God and mankind because my work didn’t reach the quality it should have.

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

Everyone goes through adversity in life, but what matters is how you learn from it.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

All of our problems start in our minds.

Fear is exciting for me.

I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.

When I grew up, the Devil was a reason why I had a headache or the Devil was the reason I got mad today. We always blamed the Devil. I think today when I say the Enemy, I like to make it broader. Sometimes the Enemy can be our own thoughts.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

I am never satisfied with myself and that is what keeps me going – I have no post-satisfaction.

I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older, you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs.

Take the complications, rules, shoulds, musts, have tos, and so on out of your life. By uncomplicating your life and removing the trivial pursuits that occupy so much of it, you open a channel for the genius within you to emerge.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

The older I get, the more important the eternal becomes to me personally.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I’m going to grow artistically.

The more I grow in popularity, the lonelier it gets. Because you don’t really know me. You just know this part of me. You fell in love with that. But it’s way more intricate than what meets the surface.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

It creeps me out sometimes to think of the person I was. I was a terrible person. I was mean to people.

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.

You’ll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Instead of blaming everyone and everything else for your problems, pray for God to help you take an inventory of what’s been on your mind so you can think about what you’ve been thinking about.