I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

I imagine I will be less involved in film and be focused more on family and foreign affairs.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.

What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

It is always your next move.

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

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.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were – to the very last minute – a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

This guy Clubber Lang, I’ve been him all my life. He’s mean and hungry just like me.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

I’m the type person, my safe place to be emotional is the booth.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.

I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It’s a natural process.

A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

I’m just trying to be myself. I’m not trying to be anyone else.

I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. No matter what the injury – unless it’s completely debilitating – I’m going to be the same player I’ve always been. I’ll figure it out. I’ll make some tweaks, some changes, but I’m still coming.

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

I stayed focused, and I never surrendered, and now I’ve been blessed. now I take care of my mother, my father, and my entire whole family.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

I love having my hands in the dirt. It is never a science and always an art. There are no rules. And if it comes down to me versus that weed I’m trying to pull out of the ground that doesn’t want to come out? I know I’ll win.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

There are no second acts in American lives.

Remember that your imagination is yours and yours alone. You have the inborn capacity to use it in any way that you choose. No one else is responsible for your imagination. Anything placed in your imagination and held there ultimately becomes your reality.

In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.