I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

I realize I don’t do a very good job in keeping up to date, but I try to.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

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.

I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.

I like to recede away from classifications. You might say that indicates a fundamental lack of commitment. I suppose that’s true to some degree.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don’t just be mad at him or her.

I’m not lesbian; I’m not bisexual; I’m not straight. I’m just curious.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

You don’t look out there for God, something in the sky, you look in you.

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.

I’m going to use all my tools, my God-given ability, and make the best life I can with it.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

The Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Aloysius Grade School influenced my life tremendously. This was due to the fact that they encouraged you always to make sure that God is the focus of your life, and they didn’t allow you to do anything except to the very best of your ability.

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

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

There’s an inherent danger in letting people think that they have perfected something. When they believe they’ve ‚nailed it,‘ most people tend to sit back and rest on their laurels while countless others will be labouring furiously to better their work!

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to trust your team. It’s a lesson I’ve had to relearn quite a few times.

Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering.

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

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

My future is righteousness.

I deeply regret any harm, or any perceived harm, that I may have done to anyone by any behaviour of mine.

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

It’s getting harder to make decisions to just want to do something to work… I’m trying to find things that are extremely challenging or mean something to me deeply.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

God enters by a private door into every individual.

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.

I like to take every day just searching my own heart, making sure that I’m on course, and I’m doing what God wants me to do. I’m real good with not looking to the critics and looking straight ahead.

The world we see that seems so insane is the result of a belief system that is not working. To perceive the world differently, we must be willing to change our belief system, let the past slip away, expand our sense of now, and dissolve the fear in our minds.

Bob Marley isn’t my name. I don’t even know my name yet.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

If I had a talent, it was for looking askew at everything, possibly more than my contemporaries. But I had to really push myself to be a writer.

The drama and the trauma of the relationship you have when you’re 16 can mirror the one you have when you’re 26. Life repeats itself.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

The reason I became 297 pounds is because that was comfortable. What was very uncomfortable was running. What was very uncomfortable was being on a diet. What was very uncomfortable was trying to face things that I didn’t want to face. And I also realized, when I was really big, I had no growth. Why? Because I was living comfortable.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you’ve blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

To some extent I happily don’t know what I’m doing. I feel that it’s an artist’s responsibility to trust that.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don’t at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

Religion is essentially the art and the theory of the remaking of man. Man is not a finished creation.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!