Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

A musician should only sound like what they do, and no two musicians sound the same. It’s an individual-feel thing, you know?

Take me seriously. Take me and my role seriously. Take my talent seriously.

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

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and under the rule of a just God, cannot long retain it.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

At one time, I was very angry. I even treated fashion like a kind of crusade: you were either with us or against us, that kind of feeling. Now I know we need ideas, not kicking down a door.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

When I arrived, at first a lot of people were like, ‚This kid is different.‘

A right delayed is a right denied.

I’m a really particular person. I want it my way.

I always bring out the best in men I fight, but Joe Frazier, I’ll tell the world right now, brings out the best in me. I’m gonna tell ya, that’s one helluva man, and God bless him.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God’s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

I don’t have the best track record with quotes.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

A child wants things to be a certain way. When you get to be an adult, you just understand that some people are good, some are not, and you can’t be naive.

Don’t be afraid to see what you see.

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

Every citizen has the real right to receive general education and professional training at no cost, something that the United States has not been able to ensure for all its inhabitants.

Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, ‚What a waste of energy.‘ If people want to believe in this god or that god, that’s fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

The reason I became 297 pounds is because that was comfortable. What was very uncomfortable was running. What was very uncomfortable was being on a diet. What was very uncomfortable was trying to face things that I didn’t want to face. And I also realized, when I was really big, I had no growth. Why? Because I was living comfortable.

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.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

I always liked different things, rare things.

I think that there’s no doubt that as I see friends, families, children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues.

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is choosing the kind of universe you exist in: is it helpful and supportive or hostile and unsupportive? Your answer to this question will make all the difference in terms of how you live your life and what kind of Divine assistance you attract.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

The man who loves other countries as much as his own stands on a level with the man who loves other women as much as he loves his own wife.

We work to become, not to acquire.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

Life cannot be without relationship, but we have made it so agonizing and hideous by basing it on personal and possessive love. Can one love and yet not possess? You will find the true answer not in escape, ideals, beliefs but through the understanding of the causes of dependence and possessiveness.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

All of us are in the same place, each with our own rooms, and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Which is totally different than college, where they manage your schedule for you. In the NBA, you’re on your own.

Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

I’ve experienced great things, I’ve experienced great tragedies. I’ve done almost everything I could possibly ever imagine doing, but I just know that there’s more.

Sometimes, you might meet somebody that you love that’s turning into a ‚they.‘ My key is invite them to Miami and take them to the ocean and let them jump off the boat in the ocean, on the sand bar, and cleanse off and pray and then go take a shower, and hopefully the ‚they‘ is out of you.

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

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Don’t talk about what you have done or what you are going to do.