A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Hope is the magic carpet that transports us from the present moment into the realm of infinite possibilities.

I have more friends in New York than Paris.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

We represent a hustler. I think we represent inspiration. I think we represent, you know, staying down. I think we represent building yourself up from the bootstraps.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

Man is only great when he acts from passion.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

When I do have free time, I spend it with friends, or I spend it at home writing or making something.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

I’ve never had writer’s block.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

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.

The future is called ‚perhaps‘, which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.

The way to know life is to love many things.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.

Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

When I was 8 years old, I saw ‚Raiders of the Lost Ark‘ in Charlotte, North Carolina. I walked out of there and was so inspired. I loved the movie, and I knew I wanted to be that guy.

I’ve never been able to witness the birth of an idea. It seems as if one second, there’s nothing particularly going on, and the next second, something is there. It’s coming up out of my unconscious, up from places that I don’t even know where they are.

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

The first time I ever saw snow skis was when I was 62 years old and that was 19 years ago and I’m still skiing. So, we’ll be skiing with some very close friends of the Carter Center letting them know what the Carter Center is doing around the world. We have programs in over 65 countries.

I never dreamt, in my dream, I’m Dalai Lama.

A home without books is a body without soul.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.

Preparation for a mission is important. A mission is a voluntary act of service to God and humankind. Missionaries support that privilege with their personal savings. Parents, families, friends, and donors to the General Missionary Fund may also assist.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

Every production of genius must be the production of enthusiasm.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

I was performing in New York and my friends started to call me Gaga, they said I was very theatrical and they said, ‚You’re Gaga‘.

I didn’t have nothin‘ going for me… school, home… until I found something I loved, which was music, and that changed everything.