I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

Whenever you give up something, you must replace it with something.

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

The best part about being in your thirties is you know what works for you.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

You have to stay faithful to what you’re working on.

When you’re one of the leaders of the team, there are no days off.

One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it. Write the list or the schedule the night before, and then do what you said you would do. Life becomes much better when you do that.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

Suffering by nature or chance never seems so painful as suffering inflicted on us by the arbitrary will of another.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

The absent are never without fault, nor the present without excuse.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

Man is an idea, and a precious small idea once he turns his back on love.

The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time.

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

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

On the field, aggression can sometimes be a positive emotion. It boosts performance and can lift your game. But over the years, I have learnt that restrained aggression is a better animal. That way, you will conserve your energy and won’t spend yourself quickly.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

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.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.

The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond the winning.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

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

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

You need to understand what works best for your own body.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

Our necessities never equal our wants.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

I just got to feel that whoever I marry has some real regard for me.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

I believe that one key to success is to accept truth, no matter how it’s spoken.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

People won’t have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.