I haven’t written my own epitaph, and I’m not sure I should. Whatever it is, I hope it will be simple, and that it will point people not to me, but to the One I served.

Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom… in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God’s Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.

Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.

It is a curious thing: man, the centre and creator of all science, is the only object which our science has not yet succeeded in including in a homogeneous representation of the universe. We know the history of his bones, but no ordered place has yet been found in nature for his reflective intelligence.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

Service of any type requires preparation.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

I’m not a god – I do bad things.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

Twice and thrice over, as they say, good is it to repeat and review what is good.

Give thy thoughts no tongue.

Try and leave this world a little better than you found it, and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate, you have not wasted your time but have done your best.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

Giving is better than receiving because giving starts the receiving process.

Everybody loves you when you’re six foot in the ground.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

I am not saying I am the best manager in the world. But I’m quite good.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.

The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded.

Have you ever thought how humiliating and distressing it was to be placed upon a sphere? For friendship it is a boon never to be able to be further apart than the antipodes. But suppose that you are leaving together to go on and on; it is impossible. To go beyond a certain point is to return to where you began.

I second-guess and overthink and rethink every single thing that I do.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

No one but a fool is always right.

I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people.

My grandpa was a preacher.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

What is this world that is hastening me toward I know not what, viewing me with contempt?

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

I think that all things, in their way, reflect heavenly truth, the imagination not least.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

I don’t want to be too critical of what other people do, but when people go back to do the same thing that they did, I’m completely confused. I’m like, ‚Didn’t you make that movie already?‘ I’ve been very fortunate, and I’m well taken care of, so the least I can do is try to go forward.

To all those who have suffered as a consequence of our troubled past I extend my sincere thoughts and deep sympathy. With the benefit of historical hindsight we can all see things which we would wish had been done differently or not at all.

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.

I don’t think of Kurt as ‚Kurt Cobain from Nirvana‘. I think of him as ‚Kurt‘. It’s something that comes back all the time. Almost every day.

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.

I’m honest enough to say I don’t know everything. You know, I don’t. I don’t understand all of God. I don’t understand, you know, some kind of why bad things happen.

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

Music was an experience, intimately married to your life. You could pay to hear music, but after you did, it was over, gone – a memory.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

For whatever trauma came with service in tough circumstances, we should take what we learned – take our post-traumatic growth – and, like past generations coming home, bring our sharpened strengths to bear, bring our attitude of gratitude to bear.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.

We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.

With compassion you can die for other people, like the mother who can die for her child. You have the courage to say it because you are not afraid of losing anything, because you know that understanding and love is the foundation of happiness. But if you have fear of losing your status, your position, you will not have the courage to do it.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.