I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

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

Knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to what should be.

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

I don’t get bored.

If you start by promising what you don’t even have yet, you’ll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

Children are educated by what the grown-up is and not by his talk.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

I learned to walk as a baby, and I haven’t had a lesson since.

When you learn about the teaching and the practice of another tradition, you always have a chance to understand your own teaching and practice.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

You see, God helps only people who work hard. That principle is very clear.

‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

Why don’t you start believing that no matter what you have or haven’t done, that your best days are still out in front of you.

People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.

Refuse to be a lazy Christian, and resist a passive, apathetic attitude.

Success isn’t supposed to happen, no matter how hard you work. There’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. There’s nothing set in stone.

The important thing is that men should have a purpose in life. It should be something useful, something good.

I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money.

When I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

The fact is, I was never too bright in school. I ain’t ashamed of it, though. I mean, how much do school principals make a month?

I do probably 60 concerts a year in the States. And I go out to clubs in the week. I’m doing new stuff all the time.

Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.

There can never be any stop to learn about different cultures by travelling to different places. And whatever comes your way, continue the healthy eating habits.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life, with the exception of the written word: which is its mechanical part.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

I want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

I prefer to be in a video than to play with it.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

I think my vice would be outdoing myself.

Thomas Jefferson once said, ‚We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.‘ And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

Information, education, skills, healthcare, livelihood, financial inclusion, small and village enterprises, opportunities for women, conservation of natural resources, distributed clean energy – entirely new possibilities have emerged to change the development model.

One of the things you’re doing when you make art, apart from entertaining yourself and other people, is trying to see what ways of working feel good, what feels right.

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.

One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping.