I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

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.

The way is long if one follows precepts, but short… if one follows patterns.

I’m not perfect.

As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

What you are comes to you.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in your seeds.

I don’t have emotional needs, only physical ones.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

My overall look on things is a lot more mature than it used to be.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

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

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

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

I’m not a natural joiner.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

The work is the work. The work is not me.

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.

I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.

Yeah, I was a delinquent. It was when I was in the ninth grade. I was doing stupid stuff, and the cops came into the class. I was humiliated more than anything.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

No man was ever great by imitation.

The truth may be out there, but lies are inside your head.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

Be not a slave of words.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

I came up from a difficult background.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

As I grow up, the lessons I learn in love and relationships and how we treat each other are hopefully maturing – hopefully.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you’ve closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

Highly functioning self-actualized people simply never imagine what it is that they don’t wish to have as their reality.

What we seek we shall find; what we flee from flees from us.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

Life must be lived as play.