It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

I had writer’s block for almost a year.

People who want the most approval get the least and people who need approval the least get the most.

None but ourselves can free our minds.

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

People tend to play in their comfort zone, so the best things are achieved in a state of surprise, actually.

Life cannot be without relationship, but we have made it so agonizing and hideous by basing it on personal and possessive love. Can one love and yet not possess? You will find the true answer not in escape, ideals, beliefs but through the understanding of the causes of dependence and possessiveness.

Egos are never nice. I have been a victim of it a lot of times in my career. Whenever I have used it, I have failed.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

I may be no better, but at least I am different.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

In my case Pilgrim’s Progress consisted in my having to climb down a thousand ladders until I could reach out my hand to the little clod of earth that I am.

Many people know so little about what is beyond their short range of experience. They look within themselves – and find nothing! Therefore they conclude that there is nothing outside themselves either.

One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don’t invest any energy in them, because I know who I am.

As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.

Money does not change people, people change.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Because my dad abused me, I was determined to never let a man tell me what to do. God clearly showed me that I needed to be a submissive wife if I wanted to be effective in ministry. The truth is, if we don’t learn to submit to authority, we won’t ever learn to submit to God.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

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

When granted many years of life, growing old in age is natural, but growing old with grace is a choice. Growing older with grace is possible for all who will set their hearts and minds on the Giver of grace, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of connection and the path to the feeling of worthiness. If it doesn’t feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

Needing to have things perfect is the surest way to immobilize yourself with frustration.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you’ve closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

I have learned to know God. I have recast my social belief… All my admirers are married; most of my friends are dead; and I stand with all the world before me, where to choose a path to make in it.

I think I’m like most people – we fear the unknown and the things that have yet to come to pass, which are the very things that don’t deserve to be feared. When you give God complete control, it’s very hard not to be fearless.

Almost all of our sorrows spring out of our relations with other people.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

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.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

When I was a kid, I read the science-fiction shelves, and I read the fantasy shelves.

That’s when you know you’re the greatest: when you’re the greatest, and people still put odds against you.

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

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.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

If you get your ego in your way, you will only look to other people and circumstances to blame.

I am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

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

I deeply regret any harm, or any perceived harm, that I may have done to anyone by any behaviour of mine.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

I have a great respect for incremental improvement, and I’ve done that sort of thing in my life, but I’ve always been attracted to the more revolutionary changes. I don’t know why. Because they’re harder. They’re much more stressful emotionally. And you usually go through a period where everybody tells you that you’ve completely failed.

I think there is a lot made out of age, and what age you feel.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

I think kids are natural actors. You watch most kids; if they don’t have a toy, they’ll pick up a stick and make a toy out of it. Kids will daydream all the time.

There are two ways of being happy: We must either diminish our wants or augment our means – either may do – the result is the same and it is for each man to decide for himself and to do that which happens to be easier.

It just seems there’s better things to do in your life than be on television if it’s not interesting, if it’s not challenging, if it’s not fun. You know? When it stops being those things for me, I’ll stop making television.

I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

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 claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

For a long time I was scared I’d find out I was like my mother.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

My life is mine to remember.