I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

The more I see the less I know for sure.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.

Secretly we’re all a little more absurd than we make ourselves out to be.

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

I’m trying to keep a level head. You have to be careful out in the world. It’s so easy to get turned.

I’m addicted to placebos.

We should all be obliged to appear before a board every five years and justify our existence… on pain of liquidation.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Always do what you are afraid to do.

So near is falsehood to truth that a wise man would do well not to trust himself on the narrow edge.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

People just overshoot trying to find God. They’re going outside and trying everything. They don’t realize that it’s right inside themselves.

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

I don’t consider myself an intellectual. And this is not one of my aims. But I admire intellectual people.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

Simply put, you believe that things or people make you unhappy, but this is not accurate. You make yourself unhappy.

Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.

If you’re put on a pedestal, you’re supposed to behave yourself like a pedestal type of person. Pedestals actually have a limited circumference. Not much room to move around.

When you seek the presence of your creative Spirit and are filled with passion about virtually everything you undertake, you’ll successfully remove the roadblocks from your life and enjoy the active presence of Spirit.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

We are rarely proud when we are alone.

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

Travel teaches toleration.

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.

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

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

I’m totally myself.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

The faults of a superior person are like the sun and moon. They have their faults, and everyone sees them; they change and everyone looks up to them.

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

I already am a product.

Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

I seldom end up where I wanted to go, but almost always end up where I need to be.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

The only shame is to have none.

We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.

‚Perfection‘ to me is, I walk away from a situation and say, ‚I did everything I could do right there. There was nothing more that I could do.‘ I was a hundred percent, like the meter was at the top. There was nothing else I could have done. You know? Like, I worked as hard as I possibly could have. That’s perfection.

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

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

Deficiency motivation doesn’t work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.