And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

What one has to do usually can be done.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.

I learned a long time ago how to be coachable.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

Make bold choices and make mistakes. It’s all those things that add up to the person you become.

We’re in the last days, man – I truly, in my heart, believe that. It’s written. I could go on with biblical situations and things my grandma told me. But it’s about being at peace with myself and making good with the people around me.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

I wish I could shut up, but I can’t, and I won’t.

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

It is not so much our friends‘ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.

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.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Nothing will work unless you do.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

I’m not a star. I don’t feel I’m so great. So how can I make you feel great just because you’ve got my signature on a piece of paper?

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.

The day you stop doing the small things is the day you think you’re above everybody else.

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

Do you wish people to think well of you? Don’t speak well of yourself.

Every seven years, I sit down and make a whole new plan.

Character is power.

If someone you know makes a bad decision or uses bad judgment, it doesn’t mean you have to allow that to alter your attitude. Why should you allow anyone else’s bad decisions to send you into a tailspin of misery?

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.

What a blind person needs is not a teacher but another self.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

Never be lucid, never state, if you would be regarded great.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

It never mattered to me that people in school didn’t think that country music was cool, and they made fun of me for it – though it did matter to me that I was not wearing the clothes that everybody was wearing at that moment. But at some point, I was just like, ‚I like wearing sundresses and cowboy boots.‘

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

I’m not concerned with people seeing me in a certain way. Some people see me as a kid, some people see me as an adult. But I’m seriously not going to complain how anybody sees me, as long as they see me.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.