Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

Thought can be so seductive and hypnotic that it absorbs your attention totally, so you become your thoughts.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

Observe all men, thyself most.

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.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

I don’t know who I touch and who I don’t. I work hard trying to make people laugh. I try to do the kind of stuff that made me laugh growing up. I don’t have any secrets. I don’t know the reasons I’ve been so well received.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

Over the years I’ve seen people lose a spouse and then withdraw and lose interest in life, and I believe we need to resist that.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

Many a man thinks he is patient when, in reality, he is indifferent.

Basically you have to suppress your own ambitions in order to be who you need to be.

What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been paid for. And what I need to do is prepare myself so that I can pay for someone else who has yet to come but who may be here and needs me.

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.

I came up from a difficult background.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.

An alcoholic is someone you don’t like who drinks as much as you do.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

There are so many emotions that you’re feeling, you can get stifled by them if you’re feeling them all at once. What I try to do is take one moment – one simple, simple feeling – and expand it into three-and-a-half minutes.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.

Actors search for rejection. If they don’t get it they reject themselves.

If you modestly enjoy your fame you are not unworthy to rank with the holy.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Silence is a source of great strength.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.