I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

I think everyone should be with who they love.

Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.

My 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.

All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

I want to solidify as an artist and show that as I grow as a person and make mistakes and learn from them, I’m going to grow artistically.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

It’s hard to be humble, when you’re as great as I am.

My reputation grows with every failure.

All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they’ll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad’s restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

Become aware of your own insufficiency.

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

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Use, do not abuse… neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy.

Only the insecure strive for security.

If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it.

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 I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.

The highest result of education is tolerance.

People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men’s clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.

Money ain’t everything.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

Breathing in, I am aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart and know that my heart still functions normally. I feel grateful for my heart.

Robyn is who I am. Rihanna – that’s an idea of who I am.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

I’ve always believed in God. I also think that’s the sort of thing that either comes as part of the equipment, the capacity to believe, or at some point in your life, when you’re in a position where you actually need help from a power greater than yourself, you simply make an agreement.

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

Our necessities never equal our wants.

My thing is this; if I’m sick enough to think it, then I’m sick enough to say it.

My head’s never really quiet. The only time I can get it to turn off is if I watch ‚CSI‘ or ‚Law & Order,‘ where I have to follow the crime. If I can’t turn my head off during that, I know I’ve really got a problem.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

The wisest hustler can suddenly fall for the worst tramp and lose all of his money on her. The hustler is aware of his own weaknesses and openings to con. This awareness is his edge.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.

The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.

I have made a few mistakes early on that I admit myself, and there have been times when I have gone over the top and done things that you shouldn’t do in international cricket, but that’s how you learn.

If you want to have sustained joy, you have to not only make sure that you think right, but you also have to make decisions now that are going to guarantee some joy in the future.

I write all of my own speeches.

The foot feels the foot when it feels the ground.

As for doing good; that is one of the professions which is full. Moreover I have tried it fairly and, strange as it may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my constitution.