I think your values are always influenced by your family and your community.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

I did have two dads; one was a socialist, and one was a capitalist. I really decided I would rather be a capitalist.

Material things ain’t nothing. You feel me? At the end of the day, it’s who you is. You wasn’t born with it; you gon‘ die without it.

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

Show me the person you honor, for I know better by that the kind of person you are. For you show me what your idea of humanity is.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

I didn’t get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.

But there is a difference between cozying up to power and being close to power.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families – second families, perhaps I should say.

I feel only my friends and family need to know what is happening in my personal life.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

I wanted to be a skinny little ballerina but I was a voluptuous little Italian girl whose dad had meatballs on the table every night.

I like to complain and do nothing to make things better.

If a man’s character is to be abused there’s nobody like a relative to do the business.

Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

I can’t very well be teaching one way and living my life another way. What I do in life must be consistent with the things I say. And the same goes for you.

I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

‚Tis education forms the common mind; just as the twig is bent the tree’s inclined.

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

The love of the family, the love of one person can heal. It heals the scars left by a larger society. A massive, powerful society.

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

A mother defends herself with a heart filled with love before doing so with words. I wonder whether there is any love for the church in the hearts of those who pay so much attention to the scandals.

I was never really good at anything except for the ability to learn.

I refuse to feel guilty. I feel guilty about too much in my life but not about money. I went through periods when I had nothing, so somebody in my family has to get stinkin‘ wealthy.

The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another.

I have a brother and sister; my mother does not care for thought, and father, too busy with his briefs to notice what we do. He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they joggle the mind.

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.

I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility.

Maybe every city has a unique sensibility, but we don’t have names for what they are or haven’t identified them all. We can’t pinpoint exactly what makes each city’s people unique yet.

The arts don’t exist in isolation.

As social animals, we are extremely susceptible to the moods of other people. This gives us the power to subtly infuse into people the appropriate mood for influencing them.

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

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

My grandpa was a preacher.

I’m not good at talking about myself.

He who molds the public sentiment… makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to make.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

I had a really good childhood up until I was nine, then a classic case of divorce really affected me.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

I’ve never responded well to entrenched negative thinking.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

A family looks for ways to support and inspire one another.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

They know enough who know how to learn.

There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.