If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

Fame is but the breath of people, and that often unwholesome.

The point in history at which we stand is full of promise and danger. The world will either move forward toward unity and widely shared prosperity – or it will move apart.

I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don’t know.

A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Words are loaded pistols.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

If you want to have sustained joy, you have to not only make sure that you think right, but you also have to make decisions now that are going to guarantee some joy in the future.

I’ve always strived to be successful, not famous.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

Groups that rose from poverty to prosperity seldom did so by having their own racial or ethnic leaders to follow.

In the final choice a soldier’s pack is not so heavy as a prisoner’s chains.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.

If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.

I think God gives every one of us our own will, and unfortunately, some people choose to do evil things with it.

A mission statement is not something you write overnight… But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

High moral character is not a precondition for great moral accomplishments.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.

If you’ve lost your spirit, even living in the richest country in the world can’t help you become rich.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

The greatest legacy one can pass on to one’s children and grandchildren is not money or other material things accumulated in one’s life, but rather a legacy of character and faith.

I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

There is only one class in the community that thinks more about money than the rich, and that is the poor. The poor can think of nothing else.

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

Wise leaders generally have wise counselors because it takes a wise person themselves to distinguish them.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

Necessity never made a good bargain.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn’t, than live as if there isn’t and to die to find out that there is.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

I have to admit I’ve found myself doing the same things that a lot of other rock stars do or are forced to do. Which is not being able to respond to mail, not being able to keep up on current music, and I’m pretty much locked away a lot. The outside world is pretty foreign to me.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

I thought ‚Heller‘ was a very bad decision.

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

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

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

Of two evils, choose neither.

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did.

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously.