Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

My experience with power, you can maintain it, or you get it taken from you. You get you some newfound power and go crazy, and it get taken from you quick.

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did.

You know how big love is? Love is big. love can hold anger; love can even hold hatred.

Remember that creating a successful marriage is like farming: you have to start over again every morning.

Marriage is like putting your hand into a bag of snakes in the hope of pulling out an eel.

When people are connected, we can just do some great things. They have the opportunity to get access to jobs, education, health, communications. We have the opportunity to bring the people we care about closer to us. It really makes a big difference.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Give a little love to a child, and you get a great deal back.

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

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

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Maybe there is no actual place called hell. Maybe hell is just having to listen to our grandparents breathe through their noses when they’re eating sandwiches.

For me, often, there’s such a cloud of melancholia about knowing I’m going to have to leave my daughter on her own. I don’t know what age that is going to be, thank God. It just doubles me up in grief.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

It has been hard for me to find it, but I have found love.

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.

Talk well of the absent whenever you have the opportunity.

We can improve our relationships with others by leaps and bounds if we become encouragers instead of critics.

And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

There is nothing so difficult to marry as a large nose.

I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

My mother made me truly appreciate women.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

I’ve never had a divorce, but I’ve seen so many of my friends, my sister, my family go through that stuff, so I try to write for the people that can’t write about it. I take on their sorrow, so I’m able to kind of express it, or their joy.

You can’t be in love with a Google search.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

If my mother knew I did this for a living, she’d kill me. She thinks I’m selling dope.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families – second families, perhaps I should say.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you’re making a mistake but let you go on with it, that’s when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

If one could be friendly with women, what a pleasure – the relationship so secret and private compared with relations with men. Why not write about it truthfully?

Whoever does not have a good father should procure one.

Clearly this is a tough economic time, and a lot of families are hurting. So when we talk to parents, we talk about small changes for kids and things that don’t cost extra money. Like adding water and eliminating sugary drinks and sodas. That’s going to save money right there. Or adding a few more vegetables.

Love is only one of many passions.

Understanding is a two-way street.

I think that you can love people without it being the great love.

I’ll think I have a few wonderful friends and all of a sudden, ooh, here it comes. They do a lot of things. They talk about you to the press, to their friends, tell stories, and you know, it’s disappointing.

I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles.

There is no such thing as a lovers‘ oath.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.

I’ve missed out on a lot of things, going out with friends.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

My ultimate life dream project is my kids. My family.

My family, frankly, they weren’t folks who went to church every week. My mother was one of the most spiritual people I knew but she didn’t raise me in the church, so I came to my Christian faith later in life and it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead.

Friends accept you the way you are.

Tell your wife often how terrific she looks.

I like actors very much, but to marry one would be like marrying your brother. You look too much alike in the mirror.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

Let it be our delight to find our society in the circle of which Jesus is the center, and let us make those our friends who are the friends of Jesus.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

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

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.