I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

You need to understand what works best for your own body.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

Life is filled with detours and dead ends, trials and challenges of every kind. Each of us has likely had times when distress, anguish, and despair almost consumed us.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

I’ve never been one to sit back and go, ‚I’d better do what the audience wants me to do, because I don’t want to lose them.‘

I stayed focused, and I never surrendered, and now I’ve been blessed. now I take care of my mother, my father, and my entire whole family.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

I have a message to give to the world, and I shall not be thwarted.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

As long as you blame someone or something else – something outside you that’s bigger than you are – as the source of your problems, the problems won’t get solved.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

Really, you don’t lose until you stop trying.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

I’ve been called a recluse. There’s definitely truth in that. I like to spend time alone.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

It doesn’t matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

Every movie I make teaches me something. That’s why I keep making them.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

When life is too easy for us, we must beware or we may not be ready to meet the blows which sooner or later come to everyone, rich or poor.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.

I suppose for a very long time I’ve been trying to understand how it is that people might make sense out of their lives and make meaning and make their lives meaningful in the face of the trouble that life brings.

Love is an interesting thing. Perhaps I’ve never been in love before – I don’t really know? I think I have. I guess it’s subjective in that way.

In order to deal with all the medical cost demands and other challenges in the U.S., as we look to raise that revenue, the rich will have to pay slightly more. That’s quite clear.

Acting is the perfect idiot’s profession.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

I worked with someone who told me they’d never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.

Just as we develop our physical muscles through overcoming opposition – such as lifting weights – we develop our character muscles by overcoming challenges and adversity.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‚Thus far and no farther.‘

Contemplation of life after retirement and life after death can help you deal with contemporary challenges.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

One thing Britons have always been celebrated for, and that is being able to stick it out in a tight place.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

It’s physical. If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

I worked out early on to give up things I couldn’t do well at all.

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane.