Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

I’ve been blessed in that regard through and through. So I’m just thankful for this opportunity to play the game that I love and share that with the world.

Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.

Marriage is like a game of chess except the board is flowing water, the pieces are made of smoke and no move you make will have any effect on the outcome.

People think, because we’re young, we aren’t complex, but that’s not true. We deal with life and love and broken hearts in the same way a woman a few years older might.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.

We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.

Every man’s reputation proceeds from those of his own household.

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

I’ve always believed in God. I also think that’s the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment, the capacity to believe, or at some point in your life, when you’re in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself, you simply make an agreement.

Every once in a while I get the highly inappropriate proposal which is like, ‚Wow, Really! You don’t even know me and I don’t know you at all, and you want that to happen? Tonight? Ok, I get off work at 7.30.‘

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.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

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

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.

Remember upon the conduct of each depends the fate of all.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

Marriage is the death of hope.

If I’d married someone in show business, there’d be too much competition.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

If you are not being bullied all I would say – cause I like to talk about the other side of it as well – is you know, be someone that nurtures, and if there’s someone in your class that maybe doesn’t have a lot of friends, be the person that sits with them in the cafeteria sometimes; be the bigger person.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business, because we’d be cynical. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

The Tao teaches us not to intervene and interfere. The things we love we have to learn to leave alone. And the people we love we have to learn to let them be.

Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come.

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?

Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.

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.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

My life is mine to remember.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

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.

We have to distrust each other. It is our only defense against betrayal.

I am a bit of a solitude person – a solitary personality. I like being on my own. I don’t have any major friendships or relationships with people.

Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable.

I’m not a regrets-type person.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

I think what it really is, is that I date creative people. And I think that what intimidates them is not my purse; it’s my mind.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

It is most unwise for people in love to marry.

Every one of my regrets has produced a song I’m proud of.

Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

MySpace is my wife… Facebook is my mistress.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

I was inspired to spend an entire year – my 65th year – reading, researching, and meditating on Lao-tzu’s messages, practicing them and ultimately writing down these insights as I felt Lao-tzu wanted us to know them.

I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

When you’re in a leadership role, you can never please all of the people all of the time. There’s also a lot of responsibility that goes along with it that others may not realize.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

My partner Donald Trump says that married couples should always have a prenuptial agreement. True, a prenuptial is important if one partner is much richer than the other before marriage, but Kim and I don’t have one.