I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

Individuality is founded in feeling; and the recesses of feeling, the darker, blinder strata of character, are the only places in the world in which we catch real fact in the making, and directly perceive how events happen, and how work is actually done.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.

When I first went to places where people were suffering from war and persecution, I felt ashamed of my feelings of sadness. I could see more possibilities in my life.

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

When you have nothing important or interesting to say, don’t let anyone persuade you to say it.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

When you make the finding yourself – even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light – you’ll never forget it.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

I’m honest enough to say I don’t know everything. You know, I don’t. I don’t understand all of God. I don’t understand, you know, some kind of why bad things happen.

I dressed more like a pop star, I suppose, rather than the traditional blazer and tall trousers other players went for.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

The best things and best people rise out of their separateness; I’m against a homogenized society because I want the cream to rise.

I’m terrified of therapy because I don’t want it to mess with my creativity.

When one has not had a good father, one must create one.

I’m not intimidated by how people perceive me.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

I never went to school more than six months in my life, but I can say this: that among my earliest recollections, I remember how, when a mere child, I used to get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way I could not understand.

My freshman and sophomore years in high school, I spent a lot of time trying to get back on the right track. I was arrested multiple times by the time I was 16, so I had a little harder time trying to adjust like a lot of us do in high school.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I am, which is my life, the power to create.

For me, writing has always come out of living a fairly to-the-bone kind of life, just really being present to a lot of life. The writing has been really a byproduct of that.

In Hollywood the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can’t read. If they could read their stuff, they’d stop writing.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

We all have our imperfections. But I’m human, and you know, it’s important to concentrate on other qualities besides outer beauty.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

I’ve always kinda been a little outcast myself, a little oddball, doin‘ my thing, my own way. And it’s been hard for me to, to be accepted, certainly in the early years of my life.

I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – Thats when I get in trouble.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

I’m concerned that my technical skills have advanced to the point where I can get closer to what I’m aiming for, which is not such a good thing.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

Don’t just let the devil use your mind as a garbage dump.

I wish I knew why I am so anguished.

When granted many years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old with grace is a choice. Growing older with grace is possible for all who will set their hearts and minds on the Giver of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

We are never further from what we wish than when we believe that we have what we wished for.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

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

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

But at any rate, the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet demise. That’s not a guess, it’s a guarantee. With pride, it’s not a matter of ‚if‘ we will fall, but ‚when.‘ There are no exceptions.

I refuse to feel guilty. I feel guilty about too much in my life but not about money. I went through periods when I had nothing, so somebody in my family has to get stinkin‘ wealthy.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.