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

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

I don’t care if people I admire criticize me because their opinion is valuable to me.

I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

For those of you who do not know Him, choosing your eternal home is the most important decision you will ever make.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.

Many people resented my impatience and honesty, but I never cared about acceptance as much as I cared about respect.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

For a person who grew up in the ’30s and ’40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, ‚Here I am, read me.‘ Over time I have learned I am at my best around books.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

To me, my house is always recreating what I lost in youth.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

What you are comes to you.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

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

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

If you’re going to do something tonight that you’ll be sorry for tomorrow morning, sleep late.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

Playing Etta James in the movie ‚Cadillac Records‘ really changed me. It was a darker character, and I realized that if anything is too comfortable, I want to run from it. It’s no fun being safe.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

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.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

Choose your life’s mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 percent of all your happiness or misery.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

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

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

Adventure is not outside man; it is within.

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men’s cottage princes‘ palaces.

We continue to shape our personality all our life. If we knew ourselves perfectly, we should die.

Watch what people are cynical about, and one can often discover what they lack.

Solutions are not the answer.

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

So then, the relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

You can’t do something forever.

It is our choices… that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

Sometimes when you’ve had a long series of disappointing things happen, you can get into the very bad habit of just expecting more of what you’ve already had.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

I’ve learned never to say never.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‚You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.‘ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.