I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

The reward of a thing well done is having done it.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.

There is no waste of time in life like that of making explanations.

For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but found to be otherwise.

Better is the enemy of good.

I am just one human being.

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

I knew ‚Crenshaw‘ had elevated me and distinguished me.

I made bad decisions. I’m not denying that I made bad decisions.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?

We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Learning to live for others isn’t something that just comes naturally to anybody. You have to train yourself to do it.

The thing I always say to people is this: ‚If you avoid failure, you also avoid success.‘

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

Painting is an infinitely minute part of my personality.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.

These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I’m working on the foundation.

I hate to be smart.

I let people fill in the blanks on their own. If they want to think about their ex, that’s fine. If they want to think about maybe who one of my exes is, then that’s fine. And it might not be right, because I’m the only one who knows what these songs are really about. It’s the one shred of privacy I have in the matter.

I’m a religious woman. And I feel I have responsibility. I have no modesty at all. I’m even afraid of it – it’s a learned affectation and it’s just stuck on me like decals. Now I pray for humility because that comes from inside out.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.

When you are learning about a martial art, it is about respect.

I disagree with everything I used to say.

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

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

We become what we repeatedly do.

A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

A woman has the age she deserves.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.