If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.

Stand a little less between me and the sun.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.

The fact that our task is exactly commensurate with our life gives it the appearance of being infinite.

I tell everybody, I get so much because I give so much. I give freely, I give all my time, give all my money, give all of my soul. I try to motivate people. I try to inspire them.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

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.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

It is no use saying, ‚We are doing our best.‘ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

Nations consist of people. And with their effort, a nation can accomplish all it could ever want.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.

To all the musicians who are making reggaeton, let’s put some more effort into it and bring something new to the people!

Snoop ain’t never cosigned me, but I know everybody is like, ‚That’s the next Snoop.‘ Nah, I’m Nipsey, and I got to work to define myself.

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.

People have never looked so ugly as they do today. We just consume far too much.

Every collaboration helps you grow. With Bowie, it’s different every time. I know how to create settings, unusual aural environments. That inspires him. He’s very quick.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path. I do personalize at times, but this only for the grace and elan of the dance.

If I could write directly on a typewriter or a computer, I would do it. But keyboards have always intimidated me. I’ve never been able to think clearly with my fingers in that position. A pen is a much more primitive instrument. You feel that the words are coming out of your body and then you dig the words into the page.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Even with cameras being very cheap, one thing that researchers noticed was that you look really bad in a videoconference image because the lighting is bad and you get shadows and things.

No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today!

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever.

Every secret of a writer’s soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Hope is not a resting place but a starting point – a cactus, not a cushion.

Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude.

Talent and effort, combined with our various backgrounds and life experiences, has always been the lifeblood of our singular American genius.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

A word after a word after a word is power.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.