I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

There is no way to happiness – happiness is the way.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

Travel teaches toleration.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight… But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

You know, my main reaction to this money thing is that it’s humorous, all the attention to it, because it’s hardly the most insightful or valuable thing that’s happened to me.

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

You have to be someone.

It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

Accountability breeds response-ability.

When I look back over my life it’s almost as if there was a plan laid out for me – from the little girl who was so passionate about animals who longed to go to Africa and whose family couldn’t afford to put her through college. Everyone laughed at my dreams. I was supposed to be a secretary in Bournemouth.

You cannot let where you are today cause you to get stuck. I’m going to be my best right now. That’s what faith is all about.

My mother did not like children.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Character is power.

I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.

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

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

I kinda live where I find myself.

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.

The trained mind is a rich mind.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

All of us are mentors. You’re mentors right here and now. And one of the things I’ve always done throughout my life, I have always found that person, that group of people that I was going to reach my hand out and help bring them along with me.

I’ve done many ads because that’s my new career. It’s an inspiring extension for my mind.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.