If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

It’s much worse to read criticism about your son than yourself.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

I was never particularly fond of my voice.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

I enjoy wearing pins, and nobody tells me to do it.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

Character is power.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

You should never view your challenges as a disadvantage. Instead, it’s important for you to understand that your experience facing and overcoming adversity is actually one of your biggest advantages.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

When I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. So I would go to the club in a polo T-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Man is not a machine that can be remodelled for quite other purposes as occasion demands, in the hope that it will go on functioning as regularly as before but in a quite different way. He carries his whole history with him; in his very structure is written the history of mankind.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him.

When I was old enough to change my name, I changed it to Mr. T so that the first word out of someone’s mouth was ‚Mister,‘ a sign of respect.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

Remember that life’s big changes rarely give advance warning.

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

I never hold a grudge.

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

I’ve never gotten thick skin. If you close yourself off and you get this protective armor, there is a price you pay with that – of not feeling. And feeling is important when you are a songwriter.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

Libraries raised me.

I was in my late thirties when my eyes were opened to truth in God’s Word that showed me I wasn’t living the abundant life Jesus died for me to have. I had a very negative mindset and was miserable most of the time because of the abuse I had experienced throughout my childhood.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

I think that I’m perfect.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

It may be, it just may be, that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.