A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.

For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight, His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.

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

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

Religion was instituted to make us happy in this life and in the other. What must we do to be happy in the life to come? Be just.

It seems that it had been destined before that I should occupy myself so thoroughly with the vulture, for it comes to my mind as a very early memory, when I was still in the cradle, a vulture came down to me, he opened my mouth with his tail and struck me a few times with his tail against my lips.

Here is the rule to remember in the future, When anything tempts you to be bitter: not, ‚This is a misfortune‘ but ‚To bear this worthily is good fortune.‘

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

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

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

We did it Disneyland, in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster – closed and forgotten within the first year.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

I don’t know how to have a normal relationship because I try to act normal and love from a normal place and live a normal life, but there is sort of an abnormal magnifying glass, like telescope lens, on everything that happens.

I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

There are some people who hate my guts. But that goes with the territory.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

If we hope for what we are not likely to possess, we act and think in vain, and make life a greater dream and shadow than it really is.

Akron, Ohio, is my home. It will always be remembered. Akron, Ohio, is my life.

I never thought of losing, but now that it‘ s happened, the only thing is to do it right. That’s my obligation to all the people who believe in me. We all have to take defeats in life.

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

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

I think life on Earth must be about more than just solving problems… It’s got to be something inspiring, even if it is vicarious.

Strength was the virtue of paganism; obedience is the virtue of Christianity.

We never live; we are always in the expectation of living.

I love tattoos. And mine symbolise who I really am. I have a Samurai on my left arm. At a subconscious level, I connect to this warrior and model myself on his discipline, skills and honour. There is also a tribal tattoo and a Chinese symbol of faith. I have seen a lot of people getting tattoos just because it’s a trend.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

Americans never quit.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

It may be, it just may be, that life as we know it with its humanity is more unique than many have thought.

Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital resources are than we had supposed.

From my perspective, I absolutely believe in a greater spiritual power, far greater than I am, from which I have derived strength in moments of sadness or fear. That’s what I believe, and it was very, very strong in the forest.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

Life doesn’t imitate art, it imitates bad television.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

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.

Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books, and no matter what happens, books will survive.

It’s impossible to live a life totally free of feelings. God created all of us to be emotional creatures, and feelings are a big part of our lives.

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

We might as well die as to go on living like this.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

I don’t think that you can be prescriptive about anything, I mean, life is too complicated. Maybe there are novels where the author has not in the least thought about it in terms of film, which can be turned into good films.