I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.

I won’t touch on risky, because that’s subjective. People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear.

They know enough who know how to learn.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

Think not that humility is weakness; it shall supply the marrow of strength to thy bones. Stoop and conquer; bow thyself and become invincible.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

I’m going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I’m able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.

If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.

I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

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.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

I used to let other people’s struggles affect my happiness. If they weren’t happy, there was no way I was going to be happy. The opposite was also true: If I wasn’t happy, I didn’t want anyone around me to be happy.

What’s wrong with being a boring kind of guy?

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

Boredom is… a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.

A great man is always willing to be little.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

Music is so therapeutic for me that if I can’t get it out, I start feeling bad about myself – a lot of self-loathing.

We of the sinking middle class may sink without further struggles into the working class where we belong, and probably when we get there it will not be so dreadful as we feared, for, after all, we have nothing to lose.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

We have an epidemic of insecure people in our society today.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

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.

I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help – we can all help.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

Time is kind of an amazing thing because you can do so much with it. I think people underestimate time… I don’t want to just sit on my phone for hours.

Enjoy the satisfaction that comes from doing little things well.

Nothing on ‚Relapse‘ and very little on ‚Recovery‘ was produced by me.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures – be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner.

Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity – and I don’t mean simple – it’ll be good, and the public will know it.

I don’t carry the burden of the past or the madness of the future. I live in the present.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.

As a lifestyle you always being the focal point is innately unhealthy.

If you keep feeling a point that has been sharpened, the point cannot long preserve its sharpness.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

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.

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

The real lover is the man who can thrill you just by touching your head or smiling into your eyes – or just by staring into space.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.