I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

You can never get enough of what you don’t want.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

The truth is, somebody is always talking about you, so you have to let it go… if it’s not a part of your God-given destiny.

I’m chasing perfection.

At the core, one of my original goals is to redefine what the streets expect.

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.

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.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

We can never make ourselves better by trying… praying more or longer, studying more of the Word, performing good works, etc. Don’t get me wrong… it’s not bad to do any of these things. In fact, it’s good. It’s just that doing them in God’s power is the only way those things will have any real and lasting effect in our lives.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

The unsuccessful person is burdened by learning, and prefers to walk down familiar paths. Their distaste for learning stunts their growth and limits their influence.

What we think, we become.

Everybody that I was in school with had an uncle or father in the law, and I started to realize that I was going to end up writing briefs for about ten years for these fellows who I thought I was smarter than. And I was kind of losing my feeling for that.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

It’s really annoying for me. That’s not what I’m playing for, to be the face of the NBA or to be this or that or to take LeBron’s throne or whatever.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

I have trouble with letting go. That’s my problem.

To add value to others, one must first value others.

It’s not the daily increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.

When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a star. I didn’t really know what all that meant. I didn’t know.

Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

A lot of people are afraid to tell the truth, to say no. That’s where toughness comes into play. Toughness is not being a bully. It’s having backbone.

I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky. Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s.

Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‚You can do better than this.‘

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

Don’t grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.