Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

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.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don’t want victories anymore.

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

I think we’re about ready for a new feeling to enter music. I think that will come from the Arabic world.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

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

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

Most people treat the present moment as if it were an obstacle that they need to overcome. Since the present moment is life itself, it is an insane way to live.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

Vanity is the healthiest thing in life.

So many people live with anger and unforgiveness, and many of them are Christians.

I never expected to be anybody important.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

It is a pleasant thing to reflect upon, and furnishes a complete answer to those who contend for the gradual degeneration of the human species, that every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

Don’t grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

I am rather inclined to silence.

It is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?

Every President I think I’ve ever known, except Truman, has thought they didn’t quite get done what they wanted done. And toward the end of their Administrations, they were disappointed and wished they had done some things differently.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun, and I think I’m sort of building up to doing something else quite soon.

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

I think there is a sense of being forced at this time to look at America’s really large shadow and that’s not all that bad.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

It is a great piece of folly to attempt to make anything out of my early life.

Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

Learning about climate change triggered my depression in the first place. But it was also what got me out of my depression, because there were things I could do to improve the situation. I don’t have time to be depressed anymore.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

I was in my late thirties when my eyes were opened to truth in God’s Word that showed me I wasn’t living the abundant life Jesus died for me to have. I had a very negative mindset and was miserable most of the time because of the abuse I had experienced throughout my childhood.

Have the humility to learn from those around you.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

I think that I’m perfect.