Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

Every summer’s mine.

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

I’m a genetic optimist.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

I went through every emotion with tryna pursue what I’m doing, you know what I mean? And I think what’s gon‘ separate whoever’s gon go for something, that you ain’t gon‘ quit.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.

Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

I don’t mind people hating me, because it pushes me.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ‚Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.‘

I’ve never been one to sit back and go, ‚I’d better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don’t want to lose them.‘

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

It’s better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone – so far.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

Whatever talents I possess may suddenly diminish or suddenly increase. I can with ease become an ordinary fool. I may be one now. But it doesn’t do to upset one’s own vanity.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun, and I think I’m sort of building up to doing something else quite soon.

‚Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.

Whatever is well said by another, is mine.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

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

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

A jug fills drop by drop.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

God helps those who help themselves.

I have a self-defense mind. I’ve had it all my life.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

I had no bad moment in my relationship with Dortmund. Not one second.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

You know, T can stand for anything. T stand for working hard. T stand for loving thy neighbor. T stand for feeding the hungry. T stand for just working, working, working, being happy on the set, you know, lifting everybody’s spirits. T stands for just a nice guy.

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

Never complain and never explain.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

The fact is that since you’re a divine creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you need and want to do while you’re here on earth. It’s all perfect… and so are you!

A woman has the age she deserves.

If you have the ability to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and start over, you come out stronger because you learn from whatever mistakes you made.

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

Conscious of not being able to separate myself from my time, I have decided to become part of it.

I want people to draw strength from me.

It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.