Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.

I’m afraid to fail again.

One of the things I’ve told men over and over and over and over is if you’re being rejected by all the women that you approach, it’s not the women!

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

To try to become happy is to try to build a machine with no other specifications than it shall run noiselessly.

Good men by nature, wish to know. I know that many will call this useless work… men who desire nothing but material riches and are absolutely devoid of that of wisdom, which is the food and only true riches of the mind.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

Those places I don’t understand, just doing bad food. It takes some doing. Making good pasta is so much easier than making bad stuff. It actually takes quite an effort to make poor linguine pomodora.

Before all else, be armed.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

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

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

I’m giving all that I have in this life. I’m opening up my notebook, and I’m saying everything in there out loud.

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

Get mad, then get over it.

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.

I never knew a more presumptuous person than myself. The fact that I say that shows that what I say is true.

I’m over being a pop star. I don’t wanna be a hot girl. I wanna be iconic. And I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel like I’m highly respected, which is more important than any award or any amount of records. And I feel like there comes a point when being a pop star is not enough.

It’s very hard to find your own words – and you don’t actually exist until you have your own words.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts.

We’re going to have to work. We’re going to have to play well. Nothing will be given to us.

I’ve learned people are watching, so don’t do nothing stupid.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

I think and that is all that I am.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

I’ve always been very one-sided about science, and when I was younger, I concentrated almost all my effort on it.

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

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

I have had some cosmetic surgery, especially after I lost weight and stuff, and I’ve had my breasts lifted – but not injected. That would scare me to death, anyway.

I’ve learned that we all change constantly. It’s rare to find that person who is growing with you in the same way at the same time, who encourages you to grow.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

I learned a long time ago how to be coachable.

Literature must rest always on a principle, and temporal considerations are no principle at all. For, to the poet, all times and places are one; the stuff he deals with is eternal and eternally the same: no theme is inept, no past or present preferable.

The principle of all successful effort is to try to do not what is absolutely the best, but what is easily within our power, and suited for our temperament and condition.

Men’s actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

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