I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.

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

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

Every collaboration helps you grow. With Bowie, it’s different every time. I know how to create settings, unusual aural environments. That inspires him. He’s very quick.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

I’m about being the best.

I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

Become aware of your own insufficiency.

Only the insecure strive for security.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Education doesn’t change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

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

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.

Each year has been so robust with problems and successes and learning experiences and human experienes that a year is a lifetime at Apple. So this has been ten lifetimes.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

A failure is a man who has blundered, but is not able to cash in the experience.

New roads; new ruts.

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess!

The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one’s appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.

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

I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can’t imagine going through that. If you know that’s going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I’d rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Age merely shows what children we remain.

If someone you know makes a bad decision or uses bad judgment, it doesn’t mean you have to allow that to alter your attitude. Why should you allow anyone else’s bad decisions to send you into a tailspin of misery?

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.

Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

When schools flourish, all flourishes.

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

Feelings are more dangerous than ideas, because they aren’t susceptible to rational evaluation. They grow quietly, spreading underground, and erupt suddenly, all over the place.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.