I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – Thats when I get in trouble.

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.

To be angry is to revenge the faults of others on ourselves.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

When I found somebody who I fell in love with, it made me feel different than I felt the rest of the day. It was electrifying. That’s what inspired the ‚Off to the Races‘ melodies. That’s one of the times when you’re feeling electrified by someone else and they make you happy to be alive.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

I think I could go away tomorrow. I’ve already accomplished something. It’s such a selfish business that sometimes I get sick of myself.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

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.

Spiritual people don’t float around all day on clouds of glory; they live in the real world and deal with real issues in real ways.

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

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

They would not find me changed from him they knew – only more sure of all I thought was true.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

Forty is when you actually begin even deserving to be on stage telling people what you think.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

When you are young you tend to do so many things that are not needed. When you get experience, you know what exactly what works for you and you tend to do things that you want.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Power does not change you, it unmasks you.

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

What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.

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.

I had no bad moment in my relationship with Dortmund. Not one second.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Why does your mind conform? Have you ever asked? Are you aware that you are conforming to a pattern? It doesn’t matter what that pattern is, whether you have established a pattern for yourself or it has been established for you.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

You should never give up your inner self.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

Remember, you can always stoop and pick up nothing.

We think too much and feel too little.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

I’ve learned that men and women who are living wholehearted lives really allow themselves to soften into joy and happiness. They allow themselves to experience it.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

The only shame is to have none.

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

Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.