The work is the work. The work is not me.
Frank OceanI put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don’t have any flaws.
Kevin GatesPrayer doesn’t just change things – it changes us. If we are diligent in seeking God, slowly and surely we become better people.
Joyce MeyerMy entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.
Narendra ModiAt the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.
Lao TzuAdventure is not outside man; it is within.
George EliotWe should meet abuse by forbearance. Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.
Mahatma GandhiKeep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
EpictetusHonor thy error as a hidden intention.
Brian EnoMy parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.
Dwayne JohnsonDo your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.
Desmond TutuWe construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.
Paul AusterI love my friends and my past, and it’s made me who I am.
Lady GagaPeople who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.
Wayne DyerOne 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.
Wayne DyerA well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.
Alexander HamiltonNo change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.
Ralph Waldo EmersonSilence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.
Thomas CarlyleThings do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.
Paulo CoelhoYou live and learn. At any rate, you live.
Douglas AdamsLots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.
AuroraEverything I read about hitting a midlife crisis was true. I had such a struggle letting go of youthful things and learning how to exist and have enthusiasm while settling into the comfort of an older age.
David BowieQuestioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‚Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.‘
David BowieThere is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
Nelson MandelaI spent most of the early years of my walk with God focused on what was wrong with me. Most of us probably do that, hoping to change ourselves.
Joyce MeyerIf you try to protect yourself from pain, it becomes a stone in your heart. But the more you learn to face things, the more likely that stone can become a pearl.
AuroraYou know, it’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
James BaldwinI have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘
Joe BidenWe are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
Winston ChurchillIn those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.
Winston ChurchillIt is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.
Benjamin FranklinI have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.
Steve JobsMy work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.
Alice WalkerSometimes when you make a film you can go away for three months and then come back and live your life. But this struck a much deeper chord. I don’t have the ability yet to speak about it in an objective.
Keanu ReevesGrowing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.
Noam Chomsky‚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.
The WeekndPlenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.
Joseph AddisonThere’s room for role models who make mistakes.
Taylor SwiftI always wanted a family.
Kevin GatesYou must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma GandhiI grew up in a funny way.
Gordon RamsayI think that I’m perfect.
Dolly PartonWanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
Kurt CobainEverybody has a purpose.
Dolly PartonThere are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.
Benjamin FranklinAppearance is something absolute, but reality is not that way – everything is interdependent, not absolute. So that view is very helpful to maintain a peace of mind because the main destroyer of a peaceful mind is anger.
Dalai LamaI lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.
David GogginsThe way is long if one follows precepts, but short… if one follows patterns.
Lucius Annaeus SenecaA chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
Ralph Waldo EmersonTo become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamMy dad seemed comfortable with his decision to be a ‚have-not,‘ but I knew that I wasn’t.
Robert KiyosakiThough she be but little, she is fierce.
William ShakespeareI am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.
Henry KissingerThe world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.
William JamesWhy do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.
J. K. RowlingGod helps those who help themselves.
Benjamin FranklinIf you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.
Paul AusterBeware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.
Charles SpurgeonI had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.
Kurt CobainMilitary school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.
Robert Kiyosaki