If you see everything from the point of view of women being victims in some way, you don’t see the wood for the trees. It is better to be a person than a woman.

Apple has given me a platform to spread music. They’re giving us Latinos a chance to shine.

Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

Aviation, this young modern giant, exemplifies the possible relationship of women and the creations of science. Although women have not taken full advantage of its use and benefits, air travel is as available to them as to men.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

People only see what they are prepared to see.

There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married – who divorce in three seconds – don’t want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

I was a peripheral visionary. I could see the future, but only way off to the side.

Character is power.

I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

Men don’t really like skinny, do they?

So let’s be honest with ourselves and not take ourselves too serious, and never condemn the other fellow for doing what we are doing every day, only in a different way.

Consciously or unconsciously most of us adhere to what is expected of our role because we realize our social success depends on this. Some may refuse to play this game, but in the end they are marginalized and forced to play the outsider role, with limited options and decreasing freedom as they get older.

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about dying, but I like to think that I’ve – if it did occur – that I would die peacefully and not make too much of a fuss about it.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.

The two things in the world we all share in this world are laughter and pain. We’ve all got problems. The levels of those problems vary, but we’ve all got problems. When you can take things that are painful and make them funny, that’s a gift – to you and your audience.

If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

When one’s expectations are reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything one does have.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

I’m no natural beauty. If I’m gonna have any looks at all, I’m gonna have to create them.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

No; we have been as usual asking the wrong question. It does not matter a hoot what the mockingbird on the chimney is singing. The real and proper question is: Why is it beautiful?

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer’s hand.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

Life is grim, and we don’t have to be grim all the time.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

Things ain’t what they used to be and never were.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

Fashion is always of the time in which you live. It is not something standing alone. But the grand problem, the most important problem, is to rejeuvenate women. To make women look young. Then their outlook changes. They feel more joyous.

The biggest crime in England is to rise above your station. It’s fine to be a pop star. ‚Oh, it’s great, lots of fun, aren’t they sweet, these pop stars! But to think you have anything to say about how the world should work? What arrogance!‘

Things are as they are. Looking out into it the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

I came up from a difficult background.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

You’re not better than anybody else, but you’re not less than anybody else. You’re a child of the Most High God.

There are definitely people who disagree with certain creative decisions you make. Pleasing everyone is pretty hard.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

As you get older, time speeds up but life slows down.

The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

It seems the older you get, the more life comes into focus.

To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.