Being seventy is not a sin.

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

People change because of kids. They change how they eat. They change the way they think. They change the way they see one another.

I refuse to accept other people’s ideas of happiness for me. As if there’s a ‚one size fits all‘ standard for happiness.

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

I just want to be myself.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

My whole thing now is I know how to think properly to be successful in all aspects of my life. It’s not about ultra running or being a SEAL or pull-up records: it’s about if you want to be better you, have to change your perceived limitations and take the barriers down.

Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.

There’s nothing I have to hide or defend. I’m gonna live my life. And there are times when people wanna try to attack me, and I don’t know why, but they will. And that’s okay.

God didn’t make a mistake when He made you. You need to see yourself as God sees you.

I don’t tell people, ‚You’re okay the way that you are.‘ That’s not the right story. The right story is, ‚You’re way less than you could be.‘

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne – to beat her down, hide her.

There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

I was poor white trash, no glitter, no glamour, but I’m not ashamed of anything.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

We’re in the last days, man – I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.

You should never give up your inner self.

My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

I think how you start the day many times determines what kind of day you’re going to have.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

I’m not the most attractive fella. I’m not a Billy Dee Williams. Personality is everything.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks. And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

You simply have to accept that your demons are a part of you.

I used to have a real problem with self-pity. Every time the devil would throw a pity party, I would attend.

We all self-conscious. I’m just the first to admit it.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

I think all women go through periods where we hate this about ourselves, we don’t like that. It’s great to get to a place where you dismiss anything you’re worried about. I find flaws attractive. I find scars attractive.

The rich don’t work for money – the rich invent money.

You have to be able to accept failure to get better.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

Seeing myself on the screen makes me cringe. I understand that I am that way – pouty.

When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible.

Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.

The essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.

Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.

I’ve always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin‘ my thing, my own way. And it’s been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.

Be content to seem what you really are.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

‚Born this Way‘ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

I often joke that 100 years from now I hope people are saying, ‚Dang, she looks good for her age!‘

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.