I’m aware that, whatever the circumstances, there will always be speculation about me.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

My main goal is to be a self-made man and have control over what’s mine.

I felt I had to solve everyone’s problems.

In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

It doesn’t take much to make me angry.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.

The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

In a universe that’s an intelligent system with a divine creative force supporting it, there simply can be no accidents. As tough as it is to acknowledge, you had to go through what you went through in order to get to where you are today, and the evidence is that you did.

I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

I never come back home with the same moral character I went out with; something or other becomes unsettled where I had achieved internal peace; some one or other of the things I had put to flight reappears on the scene.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

I don’t want to be something that just comes and goes.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

Don’t think you are going to conceal thoughts by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

More gold has been mined from the thoughts of men than has been taken from the earth.

In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a ‚continent,‘ a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

She never envisioned a legal career for me, but she did think it was very important that I be able to support myself, and I think she would be pleased to see what has become of me.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

I think we have to own the fears that we have of each other, and then, in some practical way, some daily way, figure out how to see people differently than the way we were brought up to.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

Of course, like anybody I repeat myself endlessly, but I don’t know that I’m doing it, usually.

I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

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

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

Weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess.

I like to recede away from classifications. You might say that indicates a fundamental lack of commitment. I suppose that’s true to some degree.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Key is never be afraid of being yourself. Never!

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.

It’s certainly not wrong to want to be a better person. God gave us that desire.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

Doubt, of whatever kind, can be ended by action alone.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.