Any man who doesn’t love his mama can’t be no friend of mine.

Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It’s also the dangerous part and it’s an ugly emotion that hurts.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

We have observed that, in society and the world in which we live, selfishness has increased more than love for others, and that men of good will must work, each with his own strengths and expertise, to ensure that love for others increases until it is equal and possibly exceeds love for oneself.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones – the ones at home.

I love us so incredibly, insanely deeply; it’s almost unbearable to see what we do to ourselves.

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.

Actually, I didn’t start sweating until I had children.

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn’t enough and you have to go and get shot or something.

My mother cooked like a scientist. She had a giant Chinese-style cleaver that she chopped with, and a cupboard full of spices.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.

My goal is just to be respected as a man when I walk down the street with my family. I don’t care what your job is, you’re not gonna talk down to me, you’re not gonna try to get a rise out of me. I’m a man first. And in establishing that, some interesting things have happened.

No one will ever win the battle of the sexes; there’s too much fraternizing with the enemy.

My enthusiasm seems to cause my world to endlessly offer me cooperative, co-creating experiences. I’m willing and I’m eager, and not just about my writing – I feel the same way about staying in shape, enjoying my family, giving a lecture, or whatever it may be.

I’ve told Billy if I ever caught him cheating, I wouldn’t kill him because I love his children and they need a dad. But I would beat him up. I know where all of his sports injuries are.

The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself.

I searched for years I found no love. I’m sure that love will never be a product of plasticity.

If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

What ever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man.

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

There are two kinds of people in this world. ‚I‘ people and ‚we‘ people. I’ve always tried to be a ‚we‘ person.

My three children have brought me great joy.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

My grandpa was a preacher.

I don’t feel much pressure to fit in. I never have. I’ve always just wanted to do my thing. I have really good friends and good family, and if I don’t fit in somewhere else, I fit in at home.

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.

I gave my archive to Emory University because there’s a really dear friend who teaches there, Rudolph Byrd, and he’s the editor.

Be generous with kindly words, especially about those who are absent.

We had problems like all families but we had a lot of love. I was extremely loved. We always felt we had each other.

Friends applaud, the comedy is over.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the Gods.

My greatest blessing has been the birth of my son. My next greatest blessing has been my ability to turn people into children of mine.

All you need to do to be my friend is like me.

The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

One has children in the expectation of dying before them. In fact, you want to make damn sure you die before them, just as you plant a tree or build a house knowing, hoping that it will outlive you. That’s how the human species has done as well as it has.

Oh, my mama was awesome. Very strict, overreligious, loved the Lord, loved rules. But she had to be that way because of where we were growing up, the neighborhood I was from.

Jesus never mistreated anyone just because they mistreated Him. He confronted them in a spirit of gentleness and then continued to love them.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

Never injure a friend, even in jest.

You can’t forgive without loving. And I don’t mean sentimentality. I don’t mean mush. I mean having enough courage to stand up and say, ‚I forgive. I’m finished with it.‘

Obviously, you go through a lot of emotional turmoil in a divorce.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

My biggest competitor was my mum. I used to try to beat her at Chinese chequers, chess, carrom, volleyball, badminton, football, wrestling.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

I was raised a Catholic on both sides of the family. I went to a Catholic grade school and thought everybody in the country was Catholic, because that’s all I ever was associated with.

Women are made to be loved, not understood.

All religions try to benefit people, with the same basic message of the need for love and compassion, for justice and honesty, for contentment.

I was extremely lucky that I had two great wives. It sounds a bit funny to say that, but it’s absolutely true.