I’ve done everything every fat person ever has. I’ve tried every diet.

When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.

Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‚Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.‘ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they at. Do your thing – continue to rock it – because obviously, God wants you here.

I can no longer walk in the street. That’s over.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

The music we do is for people to enjoy, dance and sing to it. Dreamers – keep on dreaming and keep working hard to achieve your goals. There are many difficulties, but what matters is to stay focused and have perseverance.

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

A revolution is not a bed of roses.

Perseverance is also key to success in any endeavor, but without perseverance in combat, there can be no victory.

Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.

Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have.

The wish for healing has always been half of health.

I like playing basketball and going to the gym. I don’t box, but I’ll ride my bike and go jogging or running in the park. Sometimes my lady and I go hiking.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

How young can you die of old age?

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.

I have never felt more confident in myself, more clear on who I am as a woman. But I am constantly thinking about my own health and making sure that I’m eating right and getting exercise and watching the aches and pains. I want to be this really fly 80-90-year old.

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

Part of my daily regime is my glucosamine and, of course, a multitude of multivitamins. Branched-chain amino acids, glutamine, of course protein. I have one protein shake a day, and that is immediately after my training.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Some are reputed sick and some are not. It often happens that the sicker man is the nurse to the sounder.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

The way of the Creative works through change and transformation, so that each thing receives its true nature and destiny and comes into permanent accord with the Great Harmony: this is what furthers and what perseveres.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

I love being active.

All I do is work out. Oh my God! Half my life is spent in a gym somewhere, sweating.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health.

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

Confidence is always a good thing to have going into the weekend. Especially where it’s quite difficult to put the lap together.

Endurance is patience concentrated.

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.

What is once well done is done forever.

I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‚This is what I asked for.‘

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

The more I see of deer, the more I admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles, across canons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth beauty and courage.

I have to practice to be good at guitar. I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

I’m committed to the fight game.

The successful men I admired all built their bodies.

Health is certainly extremely important, and we’ve done a number of things at Facebook to help improve global health and work in that area, and I am excited to do more there, too. But the reality is that it’s not an either-or. People need to be healthy and be able to have the Internet as a backbone to connect them to the whole economy.