He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will – his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

Who can exhaust a man? Who knows a man’s resources?

Education is what you learn after you leave school.

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.

What one has to do usually can be done.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

More people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

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.

Relish everything that’s inside of you, the imperfections, the darkness, the richness and light and everything. And that makes for a full life.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

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

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

A man’s character is his fate.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four years old, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields. I got hopelessly lost.

I have survivor’s curiosity, I guess.

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

The people in my songs are all me.

I was always told as a child by my mother that you always have to be impeccable, even when you go to bed.

I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

And in real life endings aren’t always neat, whether they’re happy endings, or whether they’re sad endings.

It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.

The man never feels the want of what it never occurs to him to ask for.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th‘ observer’s sake.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.

Sports are such a great teacher. I think of everything they’ve taught me: camaraderie, humility, how to resolve differences.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

The best is the enemy of the good.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

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

Meditation has been a loyal friend to me. It has helped me write my books.

I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose, because settling is the worst feeling in the world.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves.

Our errors are surely not such awfully solemn things. In a world where we are so certain to incur them in spite of all our caution, a certain lightness of heart seems healthier than this excessive nervousness on their behalf.

I wasn’t born a natural entrepreneur. I had to be trained.

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