Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

If you desire many things, many things will seem few.

I was going to McDonald’s and Taco Bell every day. The kids behind the counter knew me – it wouldn’t even faze them. Or I’d sit up at Denny’s or Big Boy and just eat by myself. It was sad. I got so heavy that people started to not recognize me.

Always have something beautiful in sight, even if it’s just a daisy in a jelly glass.

There are things around, and I know where they can be got quite easily, but I quite like waking up to the sunshine.

Sometimes we look back and 10 years from now we think, ‚Boy, those were great old days.‘ Well, you know, we’re living in the good old days.

Nothing is worth more than this day.

I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, ‚Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it.‘

It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

No man, who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives, is left long without proper reward.

An employer of mine back in the ’80s was kind enough to take me on after a rough patch, and it made a big difference in my life that I knew I was the sort of person who showed up on time. It’s a basic tell of character.

For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming.

When someone bestows something on you, no matter how true it is, when someone says, ‚Sexiest Man Alive,‘ I’m honestly going, ‚Thank you. Right on.‘ For me, it’s never canceled out anything, it’s never made me go, ‚Does this make me less talented of an actor?‘

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

Fame itself… doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant.

Pay attention, don’t let life go by you. Fall in love with the back of your cereal box.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

God can cause opportunity to find you. He has unexpected blessings where you suddenly meet the right person, or suddenly your health improves, or suddenly you’re able to pay off your house. That’s God shifting things in your favor.

The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.

Naturally, there are times when every woman likes to be flattered… to feel she is the most important thing in someone’s world. Only a man can paint this picture.

A good laugh is sunshine in the house.

Sometimes you recognize that there is a category of human experience that has not been identified but everyone knows about it. That is when I find a term to describe it.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

I’ve been very fortunate.

When the well is dry, they know the worth of water.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

To win MVP was a dream come true for sure, but there are guys who have done this multiple times.

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

It’s a very strange thing being recognized or looked upon as someone special.

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help… Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

I want to thank God, obviously for the health, for the talent He’s given me, for my family who supports me, for the things that basketball’s taught me on and off the court. For the people that I’ve been able to meet through the game of basketball.

He has the most who is most content with the least.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

I’m screamingly funny, you know, I really am in the books. And that helps because I’m funnier than a lot of people, I think, and that’s appreciated by young people.

The goal for me is always to have the opportunity to work in different genres. This is a great and exciting time in my career, where I can have the opportunity to work in different genres, and also I recognize there’s not a lot of actors who have that opportunity and I’m grateful for it.

If you’re not careful to think and speak words of faith, worry will creep in, and it will not only steal your peace and joy, it will steal your ‚today.‘ The present is the greatest gift God ever gives us. So hold on to the peace that’s yours in Christ. Don’t let it go.

I love to sit and eat quietly and enjoy each bite, aware of the presence of my community, aware of all the hard and loving work that has gone into my food.

‚O sleep, O gentle sleep,‘ I thought gratefully, ‚Nature’s soft nurse!‘

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

I am not young but I feel young. The day I feel old, I will go to bed and stay there. J’aime la vie! I feel that to live is a wonderful thing.

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

Our greatness has always come from people who expect nothing and take nothing for granted – folks who work hard for what they have, then reach back and help others after them.

Old age is not a matter for sorrow. It is matter for thanks if we have left our work done behind us.

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.

I’m glad a genre writer has got a knighthood, but stunned that it was me.

If it wasn’t for baseball, I’d be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.

In my entire life, any time I’ve ever lost something, I’ve gotten something even better going around the next corner. It’s like one door closes and another door opens. As long as I can walk through the produce section in every grocery store in this country and eat the grapes that they’re going to throw away, I know I can be fine.

It’s flattering to people who stop you and say that you’ve helped them and all. But, again, you know, you’ve got to stay humble because as quick as you came up, you can come down.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

If it’s good music, it’s good music.

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.