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

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

As a kid from Compton, you can get all the success in the world and still question your worth.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

I’ve always written. There’s a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived across the street from the store and kept it when my grandmother’s papers were destroyed. I’d written some essays. I loved poetry, still do. But I really, really loved it then.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

Transforming yourself into a deep listener will not only prove more amusing as you open your mind to their mind, but you will gain the most invaluable lessons about human psychology.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

Always do whatever’s next.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

Make yourself necessary to somebody.

There’s two sorts of fear: one you embrace and one you should listen to and turn the other way.

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.

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.

Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.

I was hit by a car once on my bike, but I still rode home.

I was becoming post-ideological.

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.

A great man is always willing to be little.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

I never say I am a guru.

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.

My main goal is to be a self-made man and have control over what’s mine.

As unique as we all are, an awful lot of us want the same things. We want to shake up our current less-than-fulfilling lives. We want to be happier, more loving, forgiving and connected with the people around us.

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.

I wasn’t that great a chef, and I don’t think I’m that great a writer.

In so many ways, segregation shaped me, and education liberated me.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

I’m only going to stand before God and give an account for my life, not for somebody else’s life. If I have a bad attitude, then I need to say there’s no point in me blaming you for what’s wrong in my life.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Life opens up opportunities to you, and you either take them or you stay afraid of taking them.

One of the most important decisions you’ll ever make is choosing the kind of universe you exist in: is it helpful and supportive or hostile and unsupportive? Your answer to this question will make all the difference in terms of how you live your life and what kind of Divine assistance you attract.

Small aim is a crime.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

I don’t regret anything.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

Our Creator expects His children everywhere to educate themselves.

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