I am not a particularly thick-skinned person.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

I think everybody’s trying to get to a place in themselves where they conquer what they was afraid of; they achieve some of their life goals, kept their word about what they were trying to do.

I 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.‘

Man is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.

There are three methods to gaining wisdom. The first is reflection, which is the highest. The second is limitation, which is the easiest. The third is experience, which is the bitterest.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

I just have a thing in my brain that when I’m about to do something that’s genuine or authentic, I think of it in song form. I’ll be like, ‚Yo, this is a human emotion that no one talks about.‘

I’m addicted to placebos.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Doo-wop is special music to me because it’s so straightforward and melody-driven and captures emotions.

Since it is difficult to join them together, it is safer to be feared than to be loved when one of the two must be lacking.

I don’t have any regrets. I made all my own decisions.

I made my fair share of mistakes.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

You see, you are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. You have emotions, you have thoughts, you have a will, and you have a conscience. You are a complex being! And Jesus came to heal every single part of you. There’s not one part that He doesn’t want to make completely whole.

I’m not a complete psychopath. Am I partially? Sure. I’ll accept that. But I’m not a complete psychopath.

How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I’ll say that. Wonder and terror.

If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.

All of us are mentors. You’re mentors right here and now. And one of the things I’ve always done throughout my life, I have always found that person, that group of people that I was going to reach my hand out and help bring them along with me.

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that’s true of everyone, don’t you?

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray.

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

I kinda live where I find myself.

There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love.

I didn’t leave bodybuilding until I felt that I had gone as far as I could go. It will be the same with my film career. When I feel the time is right, I will then consider public service. I feel that the highest honor comes from serving people and your country.

The self is hateful.

There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

My number one thing? Don’t overleverage yourself. Don’t say you can do something when you really can’t.

I don’t want followers.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

I’ve always felt like there was a lot of hype around me even when there wasn’t. I felt like everyone was talking about me even when no one was talking about me.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Any hand that I’ve shaken, any person that I met when I was Joe Blow, now that I’m this guy Kevin Hart, has come back. That’s why I treat everybody with respect. I’m always a nice pleasant guy to meet because when they come back to you, they remember.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

I was at a New Year’s Eve party, and someone asked me how was my year, and I said, ‚I honestly think 2011 was the best year of my entire life,‘ and I actually meant it.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

I’m not very ambitious at all.

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death.

An onion can make people cry but there’s never been a vegetable that can make people laugh.

I have met 18 million youth, and each wants to be unique.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

The fact is that since you’re a divine creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you need and want to do while you’re here on earth. It’s all perfect… and so are you!

People may think I’m trying something new by telling stories, but they’re just jokes connected to give the illusion of stories. But really, I just continue using my imagination and creating. That’s what I do.