I practiced drawing all the time and became very interested in it. If I was at a meeting that wasn’t getting anywhere – like the one where Carl Rogers came to Caltech to discuss with us whether Caltech should develop a psychology department – I would draw the other people.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

I have been practicing archery for a long time; a bow and arrow helps me to unwind.

When you have enough understanding and compassion in you, then that amount of understanding and compassion will try to express itself in action. And your practice should help you to cultivate more understanding and compassion.

I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.

God is so big. It’s a gigantic concept in God. The idea that God might love us and be interested in us is kind of huge and gigantic, but we turn it, because we’re small-minded, into this tiny, petty, often greedy version of God, that is religion.

I spend a great deal of time with the President. We have a very close, personal, loyal relationship. I’m not, as they say, a potted plant in these meetings.

Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.

Dancing in high heels is kind of tough. I learn the dances without the heels, and then we add them. We just practice, and I get used to it. My feet hurt really badly at the end of the shows, but it’s fun. While it’s happening it’s fun. I feel tall.

If I go to Italy, I will certainly request to meet with Pope Francis, whom I admire very much.

When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.

If I like a thing, it just sticks after once reading it or hearing it.

I draw from the crowd a lot.

Volleyball, I could be pretty good. After a few practices I could be that striker, or whatever they call it.

I’ve got a feeling that music might not be the most interesting place to be in the world of things.

I’ve always been interested in science – one of my favourite books is James Watson’s ‚Molecular Biology of the Gene.‘

If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.

Once people are aware of your presence, and perhaps vaguely intrigued, you need to stir their interest before it settles on someone else.

The drawing teacher has this problem of communicating how to draw by osmosis and not by instruction, while the physics teacher has the problem of always teaching techniques, rather than the spirit, of how to go about solving physical problems.

The bat is not a toy, it’s a weapon. It gives me everything in life, which helps me to do everything on the field.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

I was always interested – I mean, it’s kind of part of your job – I was always interested in the camera.

If you play an instrument, it makes you a better singer. The more you play, the better you sing, the more you sing, the better you play.

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

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

I just kept touring and touring until it became second nature to go onstage, perform, and sing.

If in the twilight of memory we should meet once more, we shall speak again together and you shall sing to me a deeper song.

On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.

When you campaign and have to participate in so many debates just to the win the nomination of your party, you’ve had a lot of practice. You get to figure out as you go from one debate to another where you made your mistakes. By the time you get to the big debate you’re pretty polished.

A chorus is not easy.

My mother knew how to read music and everything. But I just kinda learned off of records. And so, I was listening to records and I’d play ‚em over and over.

I used to draw a lot. If my mother would ask me to do something else, I’d have a hairy conniption. I’d just go crazy.

Preaching is to much avail, but practice is far more effective. A godly life is the strongest argument you can offer the skeptic.

I met Howard Zinn in 1961, my first year at Spelman College in Atlanta. He was the tall, rangy, good-looking professor that many of the girls at Spelman swooned over.

There were some great clinicians in the 20th century – great men. Freud was a genius; Jung was a genius, Carl Rogers was a genius – there’s a half-dozen psychologists of the 1950s and humanists of the 1960s.

In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards.

I don’t believe in God but I’m very interested in her.

I was never interested in being powerful or famous. But once I got to film school and learned about movies, I just fell in love with it. I didn’t care what kind of movies I made.

My favorite book is anything by Kurt Vonnegut – he’s my literary hero. I got to meet him several times, which was a great thrill for me. I don’t really remember what we talked about.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

Communism to me is one-third practice and two-thirds explanation.

I never heard of an old man forgetting where he had buried his money! Old people remember what interests them: the dates fixed for their lawsuits, and the names of their debtors and creditors.

Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

To be a monk is to have time to practice for your transformation and healing. And after that to help with the transformation and healing of other people.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

I know Gov. Christie. We’ve met a couple of times.

I’m born with a pencil in my hand. I did lots of sketching.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

People are generally amazed that I would take an interest in any forum that would require me to stop talking for three hours.

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.

I’m considered wise, and sometimes I see myself as knowing. Most of the time, I see myself as wanting to know. And I see myself as a very interested person. I’ve never been bored in my life.

Reading and writing are connected. I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.

I’ve noticed a lot of younger artists have less fear of doing different sorts of things, whether it’s various types of music, or gallery artists moving between video and sculpture and drawing.

God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.

Time is something that interests me a whole lot – past and present, and how the past appears as people change.