Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

My job is to bring out in people what they wouldn’t dare do themselves.

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

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

To lead people walk behind them.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.

People who pity themselves think, ‚Why would I try to do anything? I’ll just fail.‘

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

I think I’ve developed, as many people do, this sense of, ‚Don’t say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.‘

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

Single life is so overrated.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

I have never felt that the one thing that I am ‚known for‘ is what I am.

I have goals.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

You are victors, not victims!

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

When I grow up, I want to be like Balvin.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

Our inquiring friends and neighbors not of our faith can also catch the wave. We encourage them to keep all that is good and true in their lives. And we invite them to receive more, especially the glorious truth that through God’s eternal plan, families can be together forever.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

Sometimes it is better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness.

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.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

Everything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age.

In difficult times, we’re not supposed to quit believing; we’re not supposed to quit growing.

The only source of knowledge is experience.

If I make a fool of myself, who cares? I’m not frightened by anyone’s perception of me.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

Get off your butt and join the Marines!

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

Applause waits on success.

‚Tis not enough to help the feeble up, but to support them after.