What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

What someone else does or doesn’t do has no effect on me and what I do.

I’m afraid that everything will get homogenized and be the same.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

He knows my limitations and where I’m a good wife and a good mom.

I hate to be smart.

My future is righteousness.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

In terms of doing work and in terms of learning and evolving as a person, you just grow more when you get more people’s perspectives… I really try and live the mission of the company and… keep everything else in my life extremely simple.

One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I am attracted to people who make this effort in knowing what suits them – they are individual and stylish.

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.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.

A true artist is expected to be all that is noble-minded, and this is not altogether a mistake; on the other hand, however, in what a mean way are critics allowed to pounce upon us.

Make the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it till it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

Individuals need to be willing to face truth about their attitudes, behaviors, even what we want out of life.

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

He that humbleth himself wishes to be exalted.

When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.

We all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn’t make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.

The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.

Above everything else I’ve done, I’ve always said I’ve had more guts than I’ve got talent.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

I’m a free spirit.

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.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

The trained mind is a rich mind.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

You have to be willing to go to war with yourself and create a whole new identity.

I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I’m blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Talent grips us. We are overtaken by the beauty of Michelangelo’s sculpture, riveted by Mariah Carey’s angelic voice, doubled over in laughter by the comedy of Robin Williams, and captivated by the on screen performances of Denzel Washington.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

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.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.