It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

One thing I want to make clear, as far as my own rebirth is concerned, the final authority is myself and no one else, and obviously not China’s Communists.

I can do whatever I want.

All of us have moments in our lives that test our courage. Taking children into a house with a white carpet is one of them.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

Self-interest is the enemy of all true affection.

We’ve been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can’t do – about what is impossible.

‚Bellyache‘ is totally fictional. I like writing about things that aren’t real. The song is about not trusting anyone and then putting trust in yourself and realizing that you don’t know what you are doing, either. Or realizing that things you do with a group of people that you think are cool in the moment are ultimately all on you.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

I don’t dislike any of my exes. If I took time to form a relationship, it’s gonna hurt when we move on, but are you puttin‘ White-Out over all that beautiful time together? That was real time in your life. It’s connected to where you are today.

It’s absolutely normal that different human beings want to go different ways.

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

When I was a kid, I had a tendency to criticize. But when I did, my mum would whisk me off to the bathroom to stand in front of a mirror. Ten minutes, never less. To think about how criticism is a poor reflection on the one who criticizes.

I had my moments of being humiliated, and then I had moments of doing something humiliating. I’m glad I lived out both roles.

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

My fat never made me less money.

I’m totally myself.

The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.

Don’t ever criticize yourself. Don’t go around all day long thinking, ‚I’m unattractive, I’m slow, I’m not as smart as my brother.‘ God wasn’t having a bad day when he made you… If you don’t love yourself in the right way, you can’t love your neighbour. You can’t be as good as you are supposed to be.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

But by reading them again and again finally I was able to grasp the essential part. What emotion, enthusiasm, enlightenment and confidence they communicated to me! I wept for joy.

I thought I would try to be gay for a while, but I’m just more sexually attracted to women. But I’m really glad that I found a few gay friends, because it totally saved me from becoming a monk or something.

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

I want to be just a pure spiritual leader.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

I know who I am, I know what I can and can’t do. I know what I will and won’t do. I know what I’m capable of and I don’t agree to do things that I don’t think I can pull off.

I’m not always going to say things the perfect way, the right way. But I’m going to say how I feel.

Never complain. Never explain.

I’m not a centerfold.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

I don’t make people bend over backwards, and I don’t like that in people. I am definitely no diva.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

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.

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.

Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

My mother did not like children.

When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

I woke up one day and thought: ‚I want to write a book about the history of my body.‘ I could justify talking about my mother because it was in her body that my body began.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

What you are comes to you.

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.

I never thought I’d land in pictures with a face like mine.