It is amazing how a new child can refocus one’s direction seconds after its birth.

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man.

My ultimate life dream project is my kids. My family.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

Having a mind that is open to everything and attached to nothing seems to me to be one of the most basic principles that you can adopt to contribute to individual and world peace.

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

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 never looked at my mantel and envisioned an MVP trophy sitting there. This is pretty crazy.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

Through my films I’m eventually trying to one day tell the truth. I don’t know if I’m ever going to get there, but I’m slowly letting pieces of myself out there and then maybe by the time I’m 85, I’ll look back and say, ‚All right, that about sums it up.‘

I’d go to, like, six different schools in one year. We were on welfare, and my mom never ever worked.

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

I want kids. I want a soccer team, and I want a husband.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

I continue to care for President Obama and for his family. I think that in many ways they are very courageous people, and I honor that, because I know what it means to live as a black person in a racist America.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Some people can just let things go, but I can’t, especially if there’s something that worries me or makes me sad.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

I’ve got incredible support from my wife and family and people around me. I’ve got great people around me who handle anything on the outside, business-wise, who help free me up to create in my job.

Every seven years, I sit down and make a whole new plan.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.

My folks ain’t graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family – and I come from a big family.

I was brought up as an only child, and we were very close. But when I was 14, we got evicted. We came home to a padlock, and I looked up at my mom and she was crying, and there was nothing to do.

My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

I’m a whopping 5 foot 4 inches tall. I’m not going to get any taller.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

That is the real spiritual awakening, when something emerges from within you that is deeper than who you thought you were. So, the person is still there, but one could almost say that something more powerful shines through the person.

Peace is one of the most precious gifts God has promised His children. I know, because for many years my life was not peaceful, and I was miserable.

My moms always told me, ‚How long you gonna play the victim?‘ I can say I’m mad and I hate everything, but nothing really changes until I change myself.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

I have a son, who is my heart. A wonderful young man, daring and loving and strong and kind.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.

As apostles and prophets, we are concerned not only for our children and grandchildren but for yours as well – and for each of God’s children.

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.

For me, being raised in a free America made all the difference.

My three children have brought me great joy.

I didn’t always have 14,000 people wanting to hang out with me on a Saturday night.

My father wasn’t around when I was a kid, and I used to always say, ‚Why me? Why don’t I have a father? Why isn’t he around? Why did he leave my mother?‘ But as I got older I looked deeper and thought, ‚I don’t know what my father was going through, but if he was around all the time, would I be who I am today?‘

One thing they never tell you about child raising is that for the rest of your life, at the drop of a hat, you are expected to know your child’s name and how old he or she is.

Family home evening is more for the purpose of teaching values and gospel principles, displaying talents and enjoying different kinds of family fun and activities.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I think there are a number of things that you can do to encourage your kids‘ dreams, but I do believe in speaking by experience of having a lot of help along the way, stumbling in the past. We’ve all stumbled, and we certainly all deserve to get up and walk again.

All my life I’ve been taught how to die, but no one ever taught me how to grow old.

Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.