Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.

I try to use my experience and the fact that I grew up in the ghetto – I tell people you don’t have to rob or steal to get out of the ghetto.

I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.

No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

‚They‘ is… stay away from them, please. There is so many different definitions of ‚they.‘ You might have a personal ‚they.‘ They against you; they want you broken and miserable. They don’t like winners; they don’t like people who’s blessed. So everybody’s got a different ‚they.‘

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn’t get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

Big results require big ambitions.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

I’m on record that it didn’t really traumatize me to do away with some people.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave man… It is more powerful than external circumstances.

I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

If you choose to do something, attack it. You can hate me, but there’s one thing you can’t say about me – that I didn’t attack it.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

To change ones life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly.

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.