I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

Enlightened people seldom or never possess a sense of responsibility.

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

Never complain. Never explain.

We are not living in a world where all roads are radii of a circle and where all, if followed long enough, will therefore draw gradually nearer and finally meet at the centre: rather in a world where every road, after a few miles, forks into two, and each of those into two again, and at each fork, you must make a decision.

Things do not change; we change.

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.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

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.

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

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

I periodically realize every few years that the only person whose taste I really trust is me.

I’m a human being. I’ve got opinions, I’m not always right, I’m not always on time, I don’t always say things in the proper way, but my intentions are always extremely pure.

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.

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

Anybody can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.

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.

I don’t regret anything.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Indecision may or may not be my problem.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

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.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

I don’t think I’m such an amazing person who needs to be written about.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

If you don’t know your full-throttle history, the whole story of how you came to where you are, it’s kind of hard to put things together.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

A woman has the age she deserves.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

Every step of life shows much caution is required.

Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority.

Always do whatever’s next.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.

I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

I’m tired of fighting. I’ve always known that I can’t be an action star all my life.

I try not to think about anything special while running. As a matter of fact, I usually run with my mind empty. However, when I run empty-minded, something naturally and abruptly crawls in sometime. That might become an idea that can help me with my writing.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

I’ve learned that men and women who are living wholehearted lives really allow themselves to soften into joy and happiness. They allow themselves to experience it.

I’ve had no problem harnessing anger.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.