Even the securest financial plan and the finest health coverage aren’t enough to hold us steady when the challenges come… We need something more, something deeper and unshakeable, something that will see us through life’s hard times.

Let’s be very clear: Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.

How one life turns out is not dependent on what people do to us or what they don’t do for us.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

When I first went to places where people were suffering from war and persecution, I felt ashamed of my feelings of sadness. I could see more possibilities in my life.

Nothing new here, except my marrying, which to me is a matter of profound wonder.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

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

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

Remember that life’s big changes rarely give advance warning.

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.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

There are a lot of things I never did, because I believe in watching those true Hollywood stories and I see how easy it is to lose track of your life.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

I am a tough guy.

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.

Don’t let the incidents which take place in life bring you low. And certainly don’t whine. You can be brought low, that’s OK, but don’t be reduced by them. Just say, ‚That’s life.‘

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

All my adult life people have been helping me.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

If you don’t feel safe as a child, you can’t learn.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.

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.

First grade is very cheap. It’s the later grades where you have to spend a lot of money if you don’t do it right.

It is amazing how a new child can refocus one’s direction seconds after its birth.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

What’s really hard is that you could care a lot for someone and not want to live with him anymore.

I was ironing my own clothes when I was 11 years old. My mental strength goes back to those days.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

I’ve done the bad-boy thing. It was fun for a good three months. But the thing about bad boys is, you have to keep in mind, you’re never gonna marry a bad boy.

We have a choice about how we take what happens to us in our life and whether or not we allow it to turn us. We can become consumed by hate and darkness, or we’re able to regain our humanity somehow, or come to terms with things and learn something about ourselves.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.