I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

At the end of the day, I understand that life has road blocks, and life is like school – you’ll be tested; we gotta pass it.

People want to feel hopeful.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

If we live a self-directed, self-motivated, self-centered life, always needing to get our own way, then we’re going to be miserable. In fact, many times we believe it’s our problems that are making us unhappy when, in reality, it’s because we’re focused on ourselves!

My life as a child did not prepare me for the fact that the world is full of cruel and bitter things.

Silence is a source of great strength.

Millions of people live their entire lives without finding themselves. But it is something I must do.

I found it hard to be young. When I was married in my twenties, I hated being regarded as ‚the little wife.‘ You don’t know what it was like then! I’d never even written a cheque. I had to ask my husband for money for groceries.

Only stupid people are changed by success.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

A lot of times, people feel that if they forgive the person who hurt them, then they will continue to take advantage of them or not take responsibility for what they did wrong.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves.

Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time… I don’t want to just sit on my phone for hours.

There is no room for military people, including our veterans, to see themselves as victims, even if so many of our countrymen are prone to relish that role.

You might be tough, but you can only be so tough for so long, you know what I mean? The brain can only take so much damage. The body can only take so much damage.

Prison was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I never say I am a guru.

It’s absolutely normal that different human beings want to go different ways.

Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are, you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be?

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

Fear is stupid. So are regrets.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I’ll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

Think big thoughts but relish small pleasures.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

I was born with a happy heart, and I try to keep a good attitude. It’s not true that I’m happy all the time because nobody is, and we all go through our things.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

I think being able to age gracefully is a very important talent. It is too late for me.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

When I was in my teens I had issues with OCD.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

I would rather make my name than inherit it.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.