Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

Whatever you believe with feeling becomes your reality.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

I will be unhappy if I know I have not accomplished something I should have done that was possible.

I used to get into a lot of fights.

I know my flaws before other people point them out to me.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

We’re not a fragile people. We’re not a frightful people. Our power doesn’t come from some self-declared savior promising that he alone can restore order as long as we do things his way. We don’t look to be ruled.

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.

Some guys look better as they get older.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

I knew ‚Crenshaw‘ had elevated me and distinguished me.

Fear is real, but so is love.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

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.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

A shady business never yields a sunny life.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed. There ain’t much credit in that.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‚If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?‘ And whenever the answer has been ‚No‘ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

My dear sisters, whatever your calling, whatever your circumstances, we need your impressions, your insights, and your inspiration. We need you to speak up and speak out in ward and stake councils.

I’m never going to be fast, and nobody will ever mistake me for being fast.

This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.

I still think I am the greatest.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

I have goals.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

If you want to make computers that really work, create a design team composed only of healthy, active women with lots else to do in their lives, and give them carte blanche.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

If I’d been born ugly, you’d never have heard of Pele.

I don’t know if I’ve ever cared much what others think.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Choosing to be positive and having a grateful attitude is going to determine how you’re going to live your life.

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

Don’t give in to excuses that can keep you from really living the best life God has for you.

I think it’s OK to be confident in yourself.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.

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

I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself – then they get to say ‚See, you did it yourself.‘

You’ll see it when you believe it.