I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Don’t ever play yourself.

I want the world to see my body.

I’m so tough and so bad, I can be humble and lift another guy up.

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke to my brother, I would write down my thoughts. And I think I wrote some of the worst poetry west of the Rockies. But by the time I was in my 20s, I found myself writing little essays and more poetry – writing at writing.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

Sisters, do you realize the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the Spirit?

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

The power of our thoughts may never be measured or appreciated, but it became obvious to me as a young boy that there was value and power in being aware of my thoughts and how I expressed myself.

I had to prove you could be a new kind of black man. I had to show the world.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

If you see everything from the point of view of women being victims in some way, you don’t see the wood for the trees. It is better to be a person than a woman.

When someone does a small task beautifully, their whole environment is affected by it.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

The child in you, like all children, loves to laugh, to be around people who can laugh at themselves and life. Children instinctively know that the more laughter we have in our lives, the better.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

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

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Want balance in your life? Then sure, get your own act together, but don’t forget four powerful disciplines of execution in your team and organization.

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

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

Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.

I don’t like perfumes that are too strong or sweet. I like a fragrance that is earthy and sensual and can be worn at any time.

I’m not a natural born performer.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

Character is the result of two things: mental attitude and the way we spend our time.

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.

My mother told me to be a lady. And for her, that meant be your own person, be independent.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

The internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful. And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

I know some people might think it odd – unworthy even – for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people’s poet so I write for the people.

What destroys more self-confidence than any other educational thing in America is being assigned to some remedial math when you get into some college, and then it’s not taught very well and you end up with this sense of, ‚Hey, I can’t really figure those things out.‘

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.

The terrifying and edible beauty of Art Nouveau architecture.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

I give opinions, not advice.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

Stylistically, I love make-up. I love doing my own make-up and stuff, but clothes-wise, I actually didn’t ever really care. Initially the fashion world was more interested in me than the music world, which was strange when I first started singing.

I’m gonna make what I want to make, and other people are gonna like what they’re gonna like. It doesn’t really matter.

Sure it’s a big job; but I don’t know anyone who can do it better than I can.

Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.