A good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you when forget-me-nots have withered. Carve your name on hearts, not on marble.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

We were born with a capacity to grow, love, marry, and form families.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

Coming generations will learn equality from poverty, and love from woes.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

Hope is a waking dream.

Hate has no place in the house of God.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

The function of posterity is to look after itself.

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Like anything else that happens on its own, the act of writing is beyond currency. Money is great stuff to have, but when it comes to the act of creation, the best thing is not to think of money too much. It constipates the whole process.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.

If we want to fight people in the world, we should fight them with pillows – pillows stuffed with food, medicine, music… That would be so much cheaper than bombs.

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

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

I really want to love somebody. I do. I just don’t know if it’s possible forever and ever.

Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.

The best marriages are the ones where we can go out in the world and really put ourselves out there. A lot of times we’ll fail, and sometimes we’ll pull it off. But good marriages are when you can go home and know that your vulnerability will be honored as courage, and that you’ll find support.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

My grandfather was one of the very, very first, if not the first, Samoan wrestlers to become known on a worldwide basis.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

I suppose for me as an artist it wasn’t always just about expressing my work; I really wanted, more than anything else, to contribute in some way to the culture that I was living in. It just seemed like a challenge to move it a little bit towards the way I thought it might be interesting to go.

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by another human being. Each of us owes deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this light.

I love New York. I’m a guy for whom a New York accent is a comforting thing.

Real living is living for others.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

The land of my fathers. My fathers can have it.

You bring children into the world. You love them with heart and soul.

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls… that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe.

My wife and I love each other very much.

It’s possible to love a human being if you don’t know them too well.

Men who think that a woman’s past love affairs lessen her love for them are usually stupid and weak.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

A gift consists not in what is done or given, but in the intention of the giver or doer.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

I never thought I’d have children; I never thought I’d be in love, I never thought I’d meet the right person. Having come from a broken home – you kind of accept that certain things feel like a fairy tale, and you just don’t look for them.

Art is the proper task of life.

Many people when they fall in love look for a little haven of refuge from the world, where they can be sure of being admired when they are not admirable, and praised when they are not praiseworthy.

Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?

Bob Dylan is like an alien on this earth, and I love him! I cried when I saw him play live because I was so close to him.

I want to be remembered as iconic and different.

The American people have not become heartless.

Not necessity, not desire – no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything – health, food, a place to live, entertainment – they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

People hate as they love, unreasonably.

I love to flirt, and I’ve never met a man I didn’t like.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.