I don’t know if I’m selfless – I still want to make a great record. I want to make a hit record. I want to tour; that’s not completely selfless. But the truth is I’m not interested in people coming to my show for me as much as I am for them coming to my show for themselves. That’s always been how I am.

This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die.

How to play music may be known. At the commencement of the piece, all the parts should sound together. As it proceeds, they should be in harmony while severally distinct and flowing without break, and thus on to the conclusion.

Touring is very routine. You get to the city, you go to the hotel, you got to be at the hotel by a certain time – it’s very routine. I’m not a very structured person, so when I get some structure, it’s cool; it’s good for me.

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.

Do something for somebody everyday for which you do not get paid.

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.

I learned how important it is to entertain people and give them a reason to come and watch you play.

We should give as we would receive, cheerfully, quickly, and without hesitation; for there is no grace in a benefit that sticks to the fingers.

The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

I just kept touring and touring until it became second nature to go onstage, perform, and sing.

You give before you get.

Many churches of all persuasions are hiring research agencies to poll neighborhoods, asking what kind of church they prefer. Then the local churches design themselves to fit the desires of the people. True faith in God that demands selflessness is being replaced by trendy religion that serves the selfish.

A tear dries quickly when it is shed for troubles of others.

To be able to throw one’s self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman’s smile – that is happiness.

I take a lot of pride in the work I do, because people pay to see me. They’ve got to get babysitters, park their car, get popcorn and candy. I’ve got to be conscious of that.

You may be rich, but there is one thing you can’t afford – that is, if you are a good sort – you can’t afford to spend money on your own luxuries while there are people around you wanting the necessaries of life.

Giving is true having.

Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.

I fear that too many have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary and are saying by their conduct, ‚I care more about satisfying my own desires than I do about bearing the Savior’s power to bless others.‘

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

A film is sort of binary – it either works or it doesn’t work. It has nothing to do with how good a job you do. If you bring it up to an adequate level where the audience goes with the movie, then it works, that is all.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

A person standing in front of an audience without enthusiasm for his subject and his actions is disconnected from his spirit.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

If you check your ego at the door when it comes to comedy, you’ve got a pretty good shot at making a great movie that you can commit yourself to, you can jump off the proverbial cliff with, and have a great time, and the audiences respond to that.

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.

A saint serves others, knowing that the more one serves, the greater the opportunity for the Spirit to sanctify and purify.

For a tear is quickly dried, especially when shed for the misfortunes of others.

Love is when the other person’s happiness is more important than your own.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.

The love we give away is the only love we keep.

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.

I was never focused on me, me, me all the time. I was always focused on somebody else.

Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.

I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!

A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.

A real Christian is a person who can give his pet parrot to the town gossip.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

I have somewhere met with the epitaph on a charitable man which has pleased me very much. I cannot recollect the words, but here is the sense of it: ‚What I spent I lost; what I possessed is left to others; what I gave away remains with me.‘

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one’s self to others.

Like every parent, when you start your family, your life completely changes. And you completely live for someone else. I find that the most extraordinary thing. Your life is handed over to someone else. From that moment on, they come first in every choice you make. It’s the most wonderful thing.

And as a writer, one of the things that I’ve always been interested in doing is actually invading your comfort space. Because that’s what we’re supposed to do. Get under your skin, and make you react.

I haven’t written my own epitaph, and I’m not sure I should. Whatever it is, I hope it will be simple, and that it will point people not to me, but to the One I served.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‚What’s in it for me?‘

They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

There’s love, and certainly children you care about more than yourself. But nevertheless, we’re alone in our heads.

It’s amazing if you just listen to people. They tell you all the time things that you can do for them, without even realizing what they’re doing. I’ve learned to take notice of those things and if it’s something that I feel God wants me to do, then I try to do that to add joy to their life.

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.

I have spent the greater part of my life in a hotel room with seven or eight kids, looking after everyone, sorting out fights, wiping noses, handing out towels, not having a clean towel left for me.

I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.

What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come but who may be here and needs me.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

A producer gets the whole vision done from top to bottom, to making the record to having the record delivered to the world. That’s a producer.