Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

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.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

Anything that encourages people to pick up an instrument and play, I’m fully behind.

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

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn’t exist except as a part of everything.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

You can’t think; you just gotta do things.

I can’t ever remember sitting around and saying, ‚gosh let’s hurry up and get these debates going, that’ll win it for me.‘ Nope.

There’s room for role models who make mistakes.

I couldn’t say I ever dreamt of becoming a composer, a pianist, or anything else for that matter. I have the kind of brain where nothing is set in stone.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

You know, most people really don’t know me.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‚If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?‘ And whenever the answer has been ‚No‘ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

If I became a philosopher, if I have so keenly sought this fame for which I’m still waiting, it’s all been to seduce women basically.

I’ve felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father’s family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.

Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

I’m not going to get somewhere and say, ‚OK, I’m done.‘ Success is never final; I’ll just keep on going. The same way as failure never being fatal. Just keep going. I’m going to the stars and then past them.

I am not afraid of saying something and going and pursuing it. That’s it. I see it in my mind. I say it out loud. I go and do it.

I was becoming post-ideological.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

I think the great part about what I do is that there’s a scoreboard. At the end of every week, you know how you did. You know how well you prepared. You know whether you executed your game plan. There’s a tangible score.

People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.

People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously. This is how character is built.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

When you’re in hell, you forget how great you really are because you’re suffering and you forget the great things you’ve done.

I love my friends and my past, and it’s made me who I am.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.

The question isn’t, ‚What do we want to know about people?‘, It’s, ‚What do people want to tell about themselves?‘

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

I do believe in the old saying, ‚What does not kill you makes you stronger.‘ Our experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. By overcoming difficulties, we gain strength and maturity.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

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

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.