I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide.

Avoid popularity if you would have peace.

Fear? If I have gained anything by damning myself, it is that I no longer have anything to fear.

If… many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

If you don’t live your life, then who will?

Earnestness is enthusiasm tempered by reason.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one’s beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.

Freedom is a man’s natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Your entire life only happens in this moment. The present moment is life itself. Yet, people live as if the opposite were true and treat the present moment as a stepping stone to the next moment – a means to an end.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

People may think I’m trying something new by telling stories, but they’re just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That’s what I do.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

There are always people always asking you for something. But I feel like I have a foundation. I have a supporting cast where it doesn’t bother me too much.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.

We’re all capable of mistakes, but I do not care to enlighten you on the mistakes we may or may not have made.

I was married a few times, and one of my husbands was jealous of me writing.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

On the whole, human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

I was raised to be independent.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – Thats when I get in trouble.

The thing I always say to people is this: ‚If you avoid failure, you also avoid success.‘

It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Me not finishing school – in my head, I still have this insecurity when I’m talking to someone educated.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn’t part of ourselves doesn’t disturb us.

An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.

As far as men go, it is not what they are that interests me, but what they can become.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.