Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

A good wife is one who serves her husband in the morning like a mother does, loves him in the day like a sister does and pleases him like a prostitute in the night.

I didn’t leave bodybuilding until I felt that I had gone as far as I could go. It will be the same with my film career. When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

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.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don’t live angry, let go now!

When you are angry or frustrated, what comes out? Whatever it is, it’s a good indication of what you’re made of.

Poverty must not be a bar to learning and learning must offer an escape from poverty.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

Why am I a star? It can’t be because of looks.

When I was making the early stuff, I never expected it to be so big. I was in my own kind of bubble. I never wanted to tour; I just wanted to create music and make a diary I could put out into the world. And sometimes, I became the characters.

Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

Taylor Swift’s audience can listen to me, but so can the street kids. I want to touch it all.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

The influence of a mother upon the lives of her children cannot be measured. They know and absorb her example and attitudes when it comes to questions of honesty, temperance, kindness, and industry.

Listening to and understanding our inner sufferings will resolve most of the problems we encounter.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

If you’re embarrassed because you have some notion about how men are supposed to behave, and it doesn’t include weeping, then you have some personal work to do.

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.

Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.

Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

Pray that success will not come any faster than you are able to endure it.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

I never deny. I never contradict. I sometimes forget.

When we started, a lot of bands sounded really different from one another.

As a vulnerability researcher, the greatest barrier I see is our low tolerance for vulnerability. We’re almost afraid to be happy. We feel like it’s inviting disaster.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

We all have done something unethical.

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.

But sports carried me away from being in a gang, or being associated with drugs. Sports was my way out.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

Knowledge and human power are synonymous.

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

My life has been very full.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

I’ve never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn’t mean for me to have kids so that everybody else’s children could be mine.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

Playing in MLS was a great experience. It has boosted my confidence and I feel I have matured as a player.

All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

Nothing can be by itself alone, no one can be by himself or herself alone, everyone has to inter-be with every one else. That is why, when you look outside, around you, you can see yourself.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.