I’m the kind of person who needs to feel like everything happens for a reason. When you date a guy and it goes badly, that’s horrible. But if you can write a song about it, then it was worth it.

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.

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

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

Me not finishing school – in my head, I still have this insecurity when I’m talking to someone educated.

I am proud of having done what I’ve done. Very proud.

When I was in college I did a lot of stupid things and I don’t want to make an excuse for that. Some of the things that people accuse me of are true, some of them aren’t. There are pranks, IMs.

I’ve discovered that when we take time to renew our minds with God’s Word, we learn how to think like God thinks, say what God says, and act like He wants us to act.

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection.

You can retire from a job, but don’t ever retire from making extremely meaningful contributions in life.

That’s something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings.

No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man.

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

There is just no comparison between having a dinner date with a man and staying home playing canasta with the girls.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

I’m very aware and very conscious of the path I chose in life, and very aware of the path I didn’t choose.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

Within all of us is a divine capacity to manifest and attract all that we need and desire.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did.

Songwriters, you have to work – you have to wait for residuals. You have to pray that the song’s going to be a hit. And then a year later, you might get a check.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Those who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

I talk about myself in the third person all the time. I don’t live my life in the way someone like you does. I live my life completely serving only my work and my fans.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

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.

The public doesn’t mind people living together without being married, providing they don’t overdo it.

A pessimist? That’s a person who has been intimately acquainted with an optimist.

No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that, everyone’s had enough of me to last a month.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

I used to get into a lot of fights.

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

I even found it difficult to watch myself playing on TV because I couldn’t identify with the person on the screen. I couldn’t get to grips with it. It was as if it was all happening to someone else.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun. A true friend is more to be esteemed than kinsfolk.

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

I just wanted to be a songwriter. I did really not like the sound of my own voice.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.

I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.

I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.

Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.

I’m one of the world’s most self-conscious people. I really have to struggle.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.