My problem was my inability to spend much time at home. I thought my family was secure, so I went running around everyplace else. I guess I had more of an effect on other people’s kids than I did my own.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

Somewhere it is written that parents who are critical of other people’s children and publicly admit they can do better are asking for it.

If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.

I never fall in love.

I realized, ‚Yo, I can’t do anything in moderation. I don’t know how.‘

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

Occasionally the conflict between ‚what we stand for‘ and ‚what we do‘ has been forthrightly addressed.

The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn’t interest you, don’t do it – I would have made a terrible mother.

I walk every day, and I look at the mountains and the fields and the small city, and I say: ‚Oh my God, what a blessing.‘ Then you realise it’s important to put it in a context beyond this woman, this man, this city, this country, this universe.

Work as if you were to live a hundred years. Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

With the amount of money I have, it’s difficult raising children the way I was raised.

I have 22 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and they keep me young.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we’ve chosen to do with our life.

Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.

I’ve been my mom’s kitchen helper since I was a little kid.

I don’t think anything about a personal legacy. I mean, those words would never come out of my mouth unless I just repeated them. Those things have never been important to me.

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.

Faith never makes a confession.

If you treat people right they will treat you right… ninety percent of the time.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last.

There is no person so severely punished, as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse.

Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time.

You gotta understand: I believe a woman should praise the man, the king. If you holding it down for your woman, I feel like the woman should praise. And the man should praise the queen.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.

It would have been difficult to have an ugly daughter.

It destroys one’s nerves to be amiable every day to the same human being.

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.

Young love is wild and outrageous, laughing at moderation and blinding us to common sense.

When I’m a director, I look at myself the actor as a completely different person. It’s somebody else up there, an actor playing a role. I keep myself out of it.

The reason I talk to myself is that I’m the only one whose answers I accept.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

If you wished to be loved, love.

Love is a state of being.

Friendship… is not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.

Clearly this is a tough economic time, and a lot of families are hurting. So when we talk to parents, we talk about small changes for kids and things that don’t cost extra money. Like adding water and eliminating sugary drinks and sodas. That’s going to save money right there. Or adding a few more vegetables.

Comfort and luxury are usually the chief requirements of life for your ego – its top priorities tend to be accumulations, achievements, and the approval of others.

All of my misfortunes come from having thought too well of my fellows.

No one is a friend to his friend who does not love in return.

There is nothing more requisite in business than despatch.

Few friendships would survive if each one knew what his friend says of him behind his back.