First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

Nothing cannot exist forever.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.

Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now – always.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

Every collaboration helps you grow. With Bowie, it’s different every time. I know how to create settings, unusual aural environments. That inspires him. He’s very quick.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

When you give, it comes back to you.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

One element of Madonna’s career that really takes center stage is how many times she’s reinvented herself. It’s easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It’s inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

Existence really is an imperfect tense that never becomes a present.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.

Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.

I can well conceive a man without hands, feet, head. But I cannot conceive man without thought; he would be a stone or a brute.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

There is no chance and anarchy in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

Error is always more busy than truth.

Without freedom of thought, there can be no such thing as wisdom – and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.

The universe is not indifferent to our existence – it depends on it.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

Forever is composed of nows.

Faith: not wanting to know what is true.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Growing up I’ve watched Lewis and aspired to have some of his attributes, mainly his speed. His raw pace is probably the best of everyone on the whole grid, so there are bits you want from different drivers.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

All I ever wanted to do with my life was own a little house. I did that way back with ‚Rocky,‘ so now everything I do is just icing on the cake.

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

To do nothing is also a good remedy.

Existence precedes and rules essence.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?

There is spontaneity to my work.

A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

A lot of people don’t realise I came out of the Smoky Mountains with a load of songs.