Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Even with my divorce and with everything, I don’t need money.

I love the attention but I don’t like too much of it.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

When I was young, I could not imagine being old. My mother said, and the doctor confirmed, that I had an unusual amount of energy; and it followed me into young adulthood.

I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

Only the shallow know themselves.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

Never marry someone in hope that they’ll change later.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

A lot of people like to do certain things, but they’re not that good at it. Keep going through the things that you like to do, until you find something that you actually seem to be extremely good at. It can be anything.

If you’re talking to a man who wouldn’t fight with you under any circumstances whatsoever, then you’re talking to someone for whom you have absolutely no respect.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Everyone has been in love, at some point or another.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

In retrospect, I can see I couldn’t talk to people face to face, so I got on stage and started screaming and squealing and twitching about. Ha! Like, that sure made sense!

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

I desire no future that will break the ties with the past.

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.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

If the other person injures you, you may forget the injury; but if you injure him you will always remember.

Duty cannot exist without faith.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

I don’t hate women – they just sometimes make me mad.

I remember, when I was a young guy in the SEAL teams, I was very afraid of making mistakes and looking stupid or doing dumb things and getting a bad reputation.

Education is not a problem. Education is an opportunity.

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

Stay active. Read the Word. Worship with other believers. Continue to give. Keep learning and growing. Your faith will be unleashed!

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

Me and my dad are friends. We’re cool. I’ll never be disappointed again, because I don’t expect anything anymore from him. I just let him exist, and that’s how we get along.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

Complaining is dangerous business. It can damage or even destroy your relationship with God, your relationships with other people, and even with your relationship with yourself.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.

Marriage is an alliance entered into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut, and a woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Living at risk is jumping off the cliff and building your wings on the way down.

One of the most terrible feelings in the world is knowing that someone else doesn’t like you. Especially when you don’t know what you’ve done to deserve it.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Solitude is independence.

I don’t have to ‚freedom-kiss‘ my wife when what I really want to do is French-kiss her.

The mind is everything. What you think you become.

Shared joys make a friend, not shared sufferings.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

I believe time wounds all heels.