Every summer’s mine.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

There is nothing wrong with America that faith, love of freedom, intelligence, and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

What I love best in life is new starts.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

I will not be triumphed over.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

My own eight children all march to the beat of their inner music, and in some cases, it is definitely far away from what I hear. I’ve had to honor their instincts and their choices, and merely guided them out of harm’s way until they could be their own guides.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

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.‘

The sun doesn’t always shine in West Virginia, but the people do.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

Encouragement to all women is – let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and… I believe in miracles.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.

Young people can create beautiful things.

Until you have cultivated the habit of saying some kind word of those whom you do not admire, you will be neither successful nor happy.

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves, and I watch my daughters – two beautiful, intelligent black young women – playing with their dogs on the White House lawn. And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

I think happiness is a goal all of us can agree on. Let’s face it – we all would like to be happy.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

I made a commitment to completely cut out drinking and anything that might hamper me from getting my mind and body together. And the floodgates of goodness have opened upon me – spiritually and financially.

People in tough times – it doesn’t mean they don’t have a great attitude.

Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

As we know, while our species remains alive, everybody has the sacred duty to be optimistic. Ethically, any other behaviour wouldn’t be admissible.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable.

Never be ashamed! There’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth bothering with.

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

Though she be but little, she is fierce.

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.

The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

You can be happy where you are.

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!

I only want my work to make people happy.

Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

Stupidly it should not be. It should be also nice. One must get along with that. Is however not necessary.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.