I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

Children wish fathers looked but with their eyes; fathers that children with their judgment looked; and either may be wrong.

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

Children make your life important.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient.

If there’s not drama and negativity in my life, all my songs will be really wack and boring or something.

I need drama in my life to keep making music.

Old age: the crown of life, our play’s last act.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.

Remember happiness doesn’t depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.

I believe that a scientist looking at nonscientific problems is just as dumb as the next guy.

Wisdom is nothing but a preparation of the soul, a capacity, a secret art of thinking, feeling and breathing thoughts of unity at every moment of life.

Life is as tedious as twice-told tale, vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

All I ever wanted to do with my life was own a little house. I did that way back with ‚Rocky,‘ so now everything I do is just icing on the cake.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

Malcolm X was the first political person in this country that I really identified with. If he had lived and not been purged, I probably would have joined the Muslims.

It’s presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Contrary to the claims of some of my critics and some of the editorial pages, I am an ardent believer in the free market.

For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

Optimism means better than reality; pessimism means worse than reality. I’m a realist.

I always try to put a seed of hope into people’s hearts. I’m not there to teach them doctrine necessarily, but to let them know that God is a good God, and has a plan for their lives. Hopefully, that will restore their faith, or draw them into faith.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

He who looks the higher is the more highly distinguished, and turning over the great book of nature (which is the proper object of philosophy) is the way to elevate one’s gaze.

O! for a muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

A lot of my heartbreak songs are inspired by things my sisters are going through, or friends.

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

People have been fed this diet of pabulum, rights, and impulsive freedom. There’s just an absolute starvation for the other side of the story.

A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon.

My production and songwriting and the environment around those vocals are not inspired by R&B at all.

I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

I try to sprinkle a little gems and jewels in the music that people could use in their own life.

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of.

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.