Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

I am in the fighting game. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t watch the news, I don’t care about politics, I don’t care about other sports. I don’t care about anything I don’t need to care about. This is my sport: it is my life. I study it; I think about it all the time. Nothing else matters.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

I never – you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age, it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

There are a lot of people who don’t know me and what I am all about.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

For me, education was power.

I’m not a regrets-type person.

I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

Enemies are so stimulating.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

I stayed focused, and I never surrendered, and now I’ve been blessed. now I take care of my mother, my father, and my entire whole family.

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

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

When asked, ‚How do you write?‘ I invariably answer, ‚one word at a time.‘

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

All my life, I’ve been trying to make a hole-in-one. The closest I’ve come is a bogey.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

Now I am older, I understand we have to accept who we are.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

Never regret what you don’t write.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

I am not the humblest person in the world. I admit that.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they’re worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.

I always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

My celebrity status allows me an opportunity, allows me a pulpit to preach and reach out to the people. Not even always preaching but just leading, motivating them by being a leader.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Little things affect little minds.

When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

I feel like people can relate to me because we all go through wins and roadblocks and passion and pain, and it’s a vibe.

I went through a period when I felt my film characters were having more fun than I was. It might partly explain why I ended up tattooed or doing certain extreme things in my life.

God has entrusted me with myself.

When it comes to everybody else’s thing and their lane and their timing, I’m never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody’s biggest mistake if that’s their intention.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.