I’m definitely looking forward to the day when I stop working – if I ever stop working. I like the idea of keeling over in my tomato vines in Sardinia or northern Italy.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

Never get out of bed before noon.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

Big results require big ambitions.

I used to think as I looked out on the Hollywood night, ‚There must be thousands of girls sitting alone like me dreaming of being a movie star.‘ But I’m not going to worry about them. I’m dreaming the hardest.

Every once in a while I get the highly inappropriate proposal which is like, ‚Wow, Really! You don’t even know me and I don’t know you at all, and you want that to happen? Tonight? Ok, I get off work at 7.30.‘

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion.

During the season, most of my time to unwind is in my car ride home. When I get home, it’s being with my kids.

I love travelling full stop – so while I’ve had some harrowing instances, I never look at them negatively. Memories are made when you’re travelling – not when you’re chained to your desk.

Every time I try to retire, or even think of retiring from acting, my agent comes up with a script.

Until 1914 I loved to travel; I often went to Italy and once spent a few months in India. Since then I have almost entirely abandoned travelling, and I have not been outside of Switzerland for over ten years.

Social Security’s not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you’ve got to put all of it on the table.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

I became a beach bum.

What makes me happy is just curling up in with my mom in her bed and watching a marathon of ‚CSI‘ and ‚Grey’s Anatomy‘ episodes with pints of ice cream.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

I always make my dreams into goals.

What a nice night for an evening.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

Every man who possibly can should force himself to a holiday of a full month in a year, whether he feels like taking it or not.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

I love being busy.

Contemplation of life after retirement and life after death can help you deal with contemporary challenges.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.

The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody.

It doesn’t matter where you come from, what you have or don’t have, what you lack, or what you have too much of. But all you need to have is faith in God, an undying passion for what you do and what you choose to do in this life, and a relentless drive and the will to do whatever it takes to be successful in whatever you put your mind to.

The end of labor is to gain leisure.

A perpetual holiday is a good working definition of hell.

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort – I think it keeps you going.

Hardly any human being is capable of pursuing two professions or two arts rightly.

It’s very important that we re-learn the art of resting and relaxing. Not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.

I’m really good at sleeping on planes. I mean, I smell jet fuel and I’m out; I’m asleep for takeoff.

I read a lot of obscure books and it is nice to open a book.

Because my career is so important, I think I make a lot of – I wouldn’t call them sacrifices, but just concessions for my job. I love what I do, and I want to do it for a long time.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

I plan on taking athletics as far as I can.

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I’ll have a window with a view.

It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week; it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.

We’re all dreamers.

I really wanted to retire and rest and spend more time with my children, my grandchildren and of course with my wife.

When we go out to the country and just sit there, what we’re really doing is just switching off various kinds of alertness that we don’t have to use. When we do that, we are stopping being defensive. We are no longer shutting ourselves off from different types of experiences, we are welcoming them in.

You reach a point where you don’t work for money.

I’m a very private person. I don’t go out much. I’m home with kids. I go to work. I don’t really like being the focus of attention, which is why I like being behind the camera more.

What keeps me going is goals.

Don’t run if you can walk. Don’t walk if you can stand. Don’t stand if you can sit. Don’t sit if you can lie down.

I am particularly drawn to the form of meditation called Japa. I know it works.

You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.

I can relax with bums because I am a bum. I don’t like laws, morals, religions, rules. I don’t like to be shaped by society.

Games lubricate the body and the mind.

Running started as a way of relaxing. It’s the only time I have to myself. No phones or e-mails or faxes.

Creative people don’t behave very well generally. If you’re looking for examples of good relationships in show business, you’re gonna be depressed real fast. I don’t have time for anything else right now but work and my daughter. She’s my first priority.

I sell escapism.

You don’t always have to be doing something. You can just be, and that’s plenty.

I do think coaches need to get away from the game more, though. It’s good for them.

There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time for love. That leaves no other time!

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.