Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

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

If you don’t set the tone for the day, the devil will set it for you.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It’s hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Once I’ve decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

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

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

I came, I saw, I conquered.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.

Children are a wonderful gift. They have an extraordinary capacity to see into the heart of things and to expose sham and humbug for what they are.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

It is not well to make great changes in old age.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don’t allow our bodies to heal, and we don’t allow our minds and hearts to heal.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

I’m not a person who defends myself very often. I kind of let my actions speak for me.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

There’s no point in starting a business unless you’re going to make a dramatic difference to other people’s lives. So if you’ve got an idea that’s gonna make a big difference to other people’s lives, then just get on and do it.

I feel like I have a job to do, like I constantly have to reinvent myself. The more I up the ante for myself, the better it is in the long run. I try to interact with my fans as much as possible. It’s good that the person I’m being onstage isn’t really an act. It’s really me.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

There is no substitute for victory.

The left paw has done me well over the years. I’m not a scientist, I’m a martial artist.

I know Elon, we’re very like minded in many ways. We’re not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it’s one thing. He’s singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don’t find that Plan B idea motivating. I don’t want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

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.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

I don’t think about that. I wasn’t a kid growing up saying one day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech. That wasn’t on my mind. So what I do is the best work I can do.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.