I tell people, and it’s the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won’t make me a car. And you can sit in church till your bottom is flat and that won’t make you a servant of Christ.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn’t.

There are a terrible lot of lies going about the world, and the worst of it is that half of them are true.

Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. I think something’s not good enough, and I won’t stop until I feel like I’ve made it. I’m never satisfied.

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

I’m all about evolution. I’m the first person to judge myself.

I don’t believe in ‚thinking‘ old. Although I’ve transitioned through many bodies – a baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, mid-life and older adult – my spirit is unchanged. I support my body with exercise, my mind with reading and writing, and my spirit with the knowing that I am part of the Divine source of all life.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

It is incomprehensible that God should exist, and it is incomprehensible that he should not exist.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

Why did I become Jackie Chan? Mostly because I work very hard. When people were sleeping, I was still training.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Tell me I have to be somewhere, and I’ll be there 20 minutes early and stay there longer than anybody else. You hold up a lot of people if you’re not on time.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

Never confuse motion with action.

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.

I am just one human being.

Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

I was 18 years old, and it was a dream come true for me to work out and eat great food for free. What else do you want in life? People think that is what it is like to be in a SEAL team, but it is less than a fraction of your career as a real SEAL.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

My message is that God is a good God.

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We’ll adapt, we’ll train, we’ll advise, we’ll mentor, and we’ll fight, and we’ll fight well.

I still enjoy watching a batter successfully cross home plate, but nothing thrills me more than seeing the Holy Spirit at work in hearts as the Gospel is carried into stadiums, across the airwaves, and around the world.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

Every time I hear a politician mention the word ‚stimulus,‘ my mind flashes back to high school biology class, when I touched battery wires to a dead frog to make it twitch.

I don’t think I’ve ever been an agnostic. I’ve always thought there’s a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there’s a world to come.

Every church is a stone on the grave of a god-man: it does not want him to rise up again under any circumstances.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

And, honestly, if somebody wants to criticize me for not being a trainwreck, that’s fine with me!

I’ll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They’re too much fun.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.