Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

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.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

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

Spiritual people don’t float around all day on clouds of glory; they live in the real world and deal with real issues in real ways.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

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

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

If I wouldn’t have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle.

I don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

God has entrusted me with myself.

Always say ‚yes‘ to the present moment… Surrender to what is. Say ‚yes‘ to life – and see how life starts suddenly to start working for you rather than against you.

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‚nirvana‘ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

The indestructible is one: it is each individual human being and, at the same time, it is common to all, hence the incomparably indivisible union that exists between human beings.

If you don’t live your life, then who will?

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

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.

A guilty conscience needs to confess. A work of art is a confession.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

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

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

Nobody looks like they did when they were 20, so why not take advantage of the fact that you’re changing, emotionally as well as physically?

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.

It’s easy to forget who you are.

Sometimes I feel like being an intellectual. Sometimes I like to just be aggressive and all the way in my feelings. Sometimes I might be emotional, or sometimes I might drag on the track and be lazy. I just like to share the different states of existence of Kevin Gates with the rest of the world.

I kind of make a film for myself to sort of express myself.

Only the insecure strive for security.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to trust your team. It’s a lesson I’ve had to relearn quite a few times.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

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.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

‚Perfection‘ to me is, I walk away from a situation and say, ‚I did everything I could do right there. There was nothing more that I could do.‘ I was a hundred percent, like the meter was at the top. There was nothing else I could have done. You know? Like, I worked as hard as I possibly could have. That’s perfection.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

I want people to draw strength from me.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

I don’t need to be vindicated, and I don’t want attention.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.