If this were all to go away tomorrow, all the big success, I would still be very happy going from bar to bar playing music for people.

Music has an intrinsic meaning, which has always been mysterious to me.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

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.

You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Saints can be happy under every circumstance.

Every single one of the guys that I’ve written songs about has been tracked down on MySpace by my fans.

Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.

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

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

Being self-made means never making an excuse as to why you can’t take steps toward whatever your goal is.

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn’t have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.

Of course, ‚I Will Always Love You‘ is the biggest song so far in my career. I’m famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

To try to become happy is to try to build a machine with no other specifications than it shall run noiselessly.

I probably hold the distinction of being one movie star who, by all laws of logic, should never have made it. At each stage of my career, I lacked the experience.

Sing me a new song; the world is transfigured; all the Heavens are rejoicing.

A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.

My whole life and my whole career, even through my music, I tell people: let’s unify; let’s show more love.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

When you seek the presence of your creative Spirit and are filled with passion about virtually everything you undertake, you’ll successfully remove the roadblocks from your life and enjoy the active presence of Spirit.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

I just am committed wholeheartedly to theatre with no intermission.

Nothing is capable of being well set to music that is not nonsense.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

There’s no happier person than a truly thankful, content person.

Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man’s, I mean.

I like the idea of a kind of eternal music, but I didn’t want it to be eternally repetitive, either. I wanted it to be eternally changing. So I developed two ideas in that way. ‚Discreet Music‘ was like that, and ‚Music for Airports.‘ What you hear on the recordings is a little part of one of those processes working itself out.

I was 14, and I fell in love with Pink Floyd.

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.

I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

I wanted very much to learn to draw, for a reason that I kept to myself: I wanted to convey an emotion I have about the beauty of the world.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

You know, my sister sings, my brother plays drums in my band. My whole family is a bunch of musicians.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Pennies do not come from heaven. They have to be earned here on earth.

For the chorus of ‚Secrets,‘ we used The Romantics‘ ‚Talking in Your Sleep‘ and ‚Pale Shelter‘ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

I try to really capitalize off of what other rappers really can’t do. There are opportunities that rappers I love simply can’t get, because… you know… I don’t have the tattoos; I have a different image.

The darkness, the loop of negative thoughts on repeat, clamours and interferes with the music I hear in my head.

A record deal doesn’t make you an artist; you make yourself an artist.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

Tears of joy are like the summer rain drops pierced by sunbeams.

I always wanted a family.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.