Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

All my life, I’ve been trying to make a hole-in-one. The closest I’ve come is a bogey.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Read a record number of books in a given month. If you’re focused on intellectual growth, train yourself to study harder and longer than ever before.

I’m a genetic optimist.

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.

I have spent my life going from mania to mania. Somehow it has all paid off.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

I think beating myself up sometimes and knowing I am not happy when I do it makes me work harder to do a good job.

When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.

Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‚Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.‘ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

Every day I try to be in communication with the universe in an unconscious way.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.

I made bad decisions. I’m not denying that I made bad decisions.

My general attitude to life is to enjoy every minute of every day. I never do anything with a feeling of, ‚Oh God, I’ve got to do this today.‘

I’ve done some analysis of the biblical stories as part of my psychological work. I knew that I had more to do, and every time I’ve done it, it’s been extremely valuable. It makes me a better teacher because I have a richer understanding of cultural history.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

People like to blame others. I think a person should just look at their own situation, look around them, find out what they wish to do, and seek and go and do that. And that’s it.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

To be ashamed of one’s immorality: that is a step on the staircase at whose end one is also ashamed of one’s morality.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

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

People want to feel hopeful.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

We all have done something unethical.

The fact is I am not having sex. But I feel absolutely ripe for the, what would you say? plucking?

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

I used to get into a lot of fights.

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.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

Choose people who lift you up.

Because my dad abused me, I was determined to never let a man tell me what to do. God clearly showed me that I needed to be a submissive wife if I wanted to be effective in ministry. The truth is, if we don’t learn to submit to authority, we won’t ever learn to submit to God.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating – people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. But Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.