I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

People should make up their own mind about what they think of me.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

When you look at the sun during your walking meditation, the mindfulness of the body helps you to see that the sun is in you; without the sun there is no life at all and suddenly you get in touch with the sun in a different way.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

We are braver and wiser because they existed, those strong women and strong men… We are who we are because they were who they were. It’s wise to know where you come from, who called your name.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

It’s not to much fun to know yourself too well or think you do – everyone needs a little conceit to carry them through & past the falls.

There was a while when I was feeling like, ‚Damn, if I’d just been born black, I would not have to go through all this‘.

I was never particularly fond of my voice.

Of course, I do everything for money.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.

Reactive people… are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

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.

Nothing is more terrible than activity without insight.

I always wanted to do things right and represent myself as somebody that took the art serious and someone that took the business serious also, so I had time to weigh the options and figure it out and do my best to create the situation that was ideal.

Kites rise highest against the wind – not with it.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

I don’t know about other people, but I love to work.

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

I think I have always had a little humor.

It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

To observations which ourselves we make, we grow more partial for th‘ observer’s sake.

If anything is certain, it is that I myself am not a Marxist.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.

Sure, I can get a little bit jealous. The good part about jealousy is that it comes from passion. It’s also the dangerous part and it’s an ugly emotion that hurts.

I do not think that there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.

No one ever died from sleeping in an unmade bed. I have known mothers who remake the bed after their children do it because there is wrinkle in the spread or the blanket is on crooked. This is sick.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

If my businesses or my investments are not profitable, then I don’t eat. And I like to eat.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

I have an expression I use as I’ve gone around the world through my career: ‚You never tell another man or woman what’s in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.‘

People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do. I know what I will and won’t do. I know what I’m capable of and I don’t agree to do things that I don’t think I can pull off.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

I’ve got a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

When a person cannot deceive himself the chances are against his being able to deceive other people.

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.

I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you. It is not dependent on some other body, some external form.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

Do FBI Agents and FBI directors have political beliefs? Sure they do. But they’re not supposed to act on them.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.