History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me.

When you campaign and have to participate in so many debates just to the win the nomination of your party, you’ve had a lot of practice. You get to figure out as you go from one debate to another where you made your mistakes. By the time you get to the big debate you’re pretty polished.

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

When there’s so much left to do, why spend your time focusing on things you’ve already done, counting trophies or telling stories about the good old days?

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

I’m not really book-smart.

The more you know of your history, the more liberated you are.

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.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

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.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.

My goal is to entertain myself and others.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.

The idea of going to school and getting a job is the most destructive one in your brain.

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

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

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again.

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

Mine is better than ours.

I hate to be smart.

History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many – not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It’s like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.

I have to keep improving myself and challenging myself.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

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

Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

I think my vice would be outdoing myself.

In fact, my courage and my bravery at a young age was the thing I was bullied for, a kind of ‚Who do you think you are?‘

Yesterday’s weirdness is tomorrow’s reason why.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

My only fault is that I don’t realize how great I really am.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

I don’t want to hear the word ‚can’t.‘

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

Why am I a star? It can’t be because of looks.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

I was not an anthropology student prior to the war. I took it up as part of a personal readjustment following some bewildering experiences as an infantryman and later as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany. The science of the Study of Man has been extremely satisfactory from that personal standpoint.

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

I think Buddhism should open the door of psychology and healing to penetrate more easily into the Western world.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

It is comforting to reflect that the disproportion of things in the world seems to be only arithmetical.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering.

I would rather make my name than inherit it.