Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.

Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

Stupidly it should not be. It should be also nice. One must get along with that. Is however not necessary.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

The Lord can give, and the Lord can take away. I might be herding sheep next year.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

The doer alone learneth.

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

It’s life isn’t it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.

My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

I focus on my own job.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.

My life is a struggle.

Your success, or lack of success, is your responsibility. Even when you have a chain of command that you don’t like as well, its your responsibility to work with the up chain of command.

Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

I am not deeply involved in Australian politics but I know there are prime ministers, governments around the world who are not acting responsibly in relation to climate change.

I’m not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I’ll accept that. But I’m not a complete psychopath.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

I have wasted my hours.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

I’m not a regrets-type person.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

The greatness of man is great in that he knows himself to be wretched. A tree does not know itself to be wretched.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

I’m not afraid to make mistakes.

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

I’m responsible for starting a whole new school of pretension.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

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.

Our greatest evils flow from ourselves.

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

I don’t tell people, ‚You’re okay the way that you are.‘ That’s not the right story. The right story is, ‚You’re way less than you could be.‘

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.