I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

I began revolution with 82 men. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

I’m of the school of thought where, if you can’t sort something out for yourself, no one can help you. Rehab is great for some people but not others.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse.

I would like to be remembered as someone who did the best she could with the talent she had.

There is one thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, and that is discipline. Because your dreams and your goals are not there waking up for you in the morning.

That’s the biggest gift I can give anybody: ‚Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you’re doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.‘

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

‚Happiness‘ is a pointless goal.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

The wise use of your freedom to make your own decisions is crucial to your spiritual growth, now and for eternity.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

My rich dad believed we should all learn to take care of ourselves.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

Without tact you can learn nothing.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

Never be lucid, never state, if you would be regarded great.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

People who pity themselves think, ‚Why would I try to do anything? I’ll just fail.‘

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

Resistance to the organized mass can be effected only by the man who is as well organized in his individuality as the mass itself.

No evil propensity of the human heart is so powerful that it may not be subdued by discipline.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?

As your career grows, the list of things that makes you happy should not become smaller, it should become bigger.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

If you sit there and have that mentality of ‚triple down on what you’re good at,‘ you’re never going to grow. You’re always going to stay the same.