I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

As we must account for every idle word, so must we account for every idle silence.

Understand: any phenomenon in the world is by nature complex. The people you deal with are equally complex. Any action sets off a limitless chain of reactions. It is never so simple as A leads to B. B will lead to C, D and beyond.

I’ve been in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus since I was 8.

When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.

There are no rules when it comes to love.

I’d like to believe that the people that have supported me in my work or identified with me in films, the people that feel they know me, they do and they don’t have misconceptions – they understand. I believe that.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow – that’s vulnerability.

It is the peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and to forget his own.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

For a young person, it is almost a sin, or at least a danger, to be too preoccupied with himself; but for the ageing person, it is a duty and a necessity to devote serious attention to himself.

Respect the burden.

If you ever see young artists, and they’re not sounding good, they sound good. They’re good singers. They wouldn’t be where they are if they didn’t sound good. It’s their nerves. Any time you see your favorite artist, and he’s or she’s screwing up or not hitting those notes, it’s not because she can’t hit it or she can’t sing; he or she is scared.

I married my best friend that happens to be a girl.

It’s easy to become very self-critical when you’re an actor. Then you get critiqued by the critics. Whether you agree with them or not, people are passing judgment on you.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.

I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don’t understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music.

I really love the culture of hip-hop.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

Factoring in millions of people when I’m writing a song is not a good idea. I don’t ever do it.

I’m one of them guys that tries to make everything the best of the best, so sometimes I’m out of control with it.

I don’t know who I touch and who I don’t. I work hard trying to make people laugh. I try to do the kind of stuff that made me laugh growing up. I don’t have any secrets. I don’t know the reasons I’ve been so well received.

In this business, by the time you realize you’re in trouble, it’s too late to save yourself. Unless you’re running scared all the time, you’re gone.

Peace begins with a smile.

I’m not a marketing person. I don’t ask myself questions. I go by instinct.

I don’t go down the road of condemning.

I’d like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!

When we value correct principles, we have truth – a knowledge of things as they are.

The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.

Love to everybody who is out there progressing and taking things to the next level.

I want everybody to understand that I am an American Negro first before I am a member of any political party.

People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

The course of true love never did run smooth.

You have a nice personality, but not for a human being.

I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.

The call of death is a call of love. Death can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.

I resigned from the Marine Corps and flying in 1974, even though I loved them both. I quit because I no longer wanted to fight for peace. Instead, I believe we can build a more sustainable peace by working for prosperity.

I’ve never been a manipulator, even in my bachelor days. I never wanted to do things to people that could catch up with me later on.

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

I knew through the surgeries that he was on my side and that this wasn’t something where I was gonna feel less of a woman, because my husband wasn’t gonna let that happen.

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

The Beatles created something that never trailed off. What a gift that was to their fans. If you’re into the Beatles, you loved them from beginning to end.

Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

It is a true rule that love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque or with an inward and secret contempt.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

I think that the idea of having a different approach to every single one of my albums is so exciting to me. I never want to make the same record twice. Why do it? What’s the point?

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I’m conscious of the mainstream without selling out.