Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

You are victors, not victims!

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.

I don’t focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I don’t worry about it.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I think I have always had a little humor.

Once someone has spent enough time cultivating bad habits and biding their time, they are much diminished. Much of what they could have been has dissipated.

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

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

I’m never going to go to Mars, but I’ve helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.

I used to have a real problem with self-pity. Every time the devil would throw a pity party, I would attend.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.

If you don’t set the tone for the day, the devil will set it for you.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

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.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes… and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

No person is important enough to make me angry.

You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors… What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‚Great, I got another one out of the way’… Keep moving forward.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

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

There are no second acts in American lives.

I focus on my own job.

I look out at the stadiums full of people and see them all knowing the words to songs I wrote. And curling their hair! I remember straightening my hair because I wanted to be like everybody else, and now the fact that anybody would emulate what I do? It’s just funny. And wonderful.

I specifically did not read other First Ladies‘ books, because I didn’t want to be influenced by how they defined the role. I knew that I would have to find this role – very uniquely and specifically to me and who I was.

All of our problems start in our minds.

Everyone has their style and your style explains a lot about who you are – you feel me? I’ve had style since childhood, so I like to dress how I feel. But maybe I get carried away by some trends.

Why do I like to write short stories? Well, I certainly didn’t intend to. I was going to write a novel. And still! I still come up with ideas for novels. And I even start novels. But something happens to them. They break up. I look at what I really want to do with the material, and it never turns out to be a novel.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

I don’t really know that much about love, it turns out.

If your treat an individual… as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.