When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

I’ve got a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

Get off your butt and join the Marines!

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, ‚What should I do?‘ And I say: ‚Act. Do something.‘ Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

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.

Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.

Look at the sky. We are not alone. The whole universe is friendly to us and conspires only to give the best to those who dream and work.

Of course it would be nice for everybody and myself if we could win but we can still have a personal or a team win if we achieve a target that is effectively a win for us.

I’ve never had writer’s block.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.

All of us are mentors. You’re mentors right here and now. And one of the things I’ve always done throughout my life, I have always found that person, that group of people that I was going to reach my hand out and help bring them along with me.

Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.

I don’t feel pressure in a negative way. I like pressure. I feel excitement and calm at the same time. No pressure, no diamonds. I want pressure: pressure creates drama, creates emotion.

My pride fell with my fortunes.

Children always turn to the light.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

If you’ve got a plan, it’s not just like a pipe dream. You have a step-by-step list of things to do to get to your goal.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

Art raises its head where creeds relax.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

A family shares hardships and a connected history.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring still.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

For me, writing a song, I sit down and the process doesn’t really involve me thinking about the demographic of people I’m trying to hit or who I want to be able to relate to the song or what genre of music it falls under.

Good luck has its storms.

It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

We’re all dreamers.

My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

A true friend encourages us, comforts us, supports us like a big easy chair, offering us a safe refuge from the world.

A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.