How one life turns out is not dependent on what people do to us or what they don’t do for us.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

When it comes to everybody else’s thing and their lane and their timing, I’m never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody’s biggest mistake if that’s their intention.

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

I encourage people not to be passive consumers of music and of culture in general. And feeling like, yeah, you can enjoy the products of professionals, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to completely give up the reins and give up every connection to music or whatever it happens to be.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.

Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose, because settling is the worst feeling in the world.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

I don’t have the best track record with quotes.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

As I grow up, the lessons I learn in love and relationships and how we treat each other are hopefully maturing – hopefully.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

It’s still scary every time I go back to the past. Each morning, my heart catches. When I get there, I remember how the light was, where the draft was coming from, what odors were in the air. When I write, I get all the weeping out.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

Complaining is dangerous business. It can damage or even destroy your relationship with God, your relationships with other people, and even with your relationship with yourself.

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

It’s important that we invest in America – literally. The terrorists wanted to destroy our economy, and we can’t let our system fall apart. We also have to invest in one another.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

The best way out of a difficulty is through it.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

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.

I want to be just a pure spiritual leader.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

The reward of suffering is experience.

I never looked at my mantel and envisioned an MVP trophy sitting there. This is pretty crazy.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

Even if you have a terminal disease, you don’t have to sit down and mope. Enjoy life and challenge the illness that you have.

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

I still have mixed feelings about what growing up is – this thing that happens to everyone, so I’ve heard.

Loving someone liberates the lover as well as the beloved. And that kind of love comes with age.

One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

Responsibility is the price of freedom.

Little things affect little minds.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

I said on the equality side of it, that it is essential to a woman’s equality with man that she be the decision-maker, that her choice be controlling.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.

Even with all the advantages of retrospect, and a lot of witnesses dead and gone, you can’t make your life look as if you intended it or you were consistent. All you can show is how you dealt with various hands.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

I love my friends and my past, and it’s made me who I am.

Most of us are raised to believe we are ordinary. The anchor of the universe is present in every child. A parent only needs to guide and step aside and let them fulfill their dharma. Help children remember that they can do or be anything.

Be proud to be Latino and never lose that pride!

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

We are twice armed if we fight with faith.