Life begins on the other side of despair.

I live in a crazy time.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Getting a great idea with song writing is a lot like love. You don’t know why this one is different, but it is. You don’t know why this one is better, but it is. It sticks in your head, and you can’t stop thinking about it.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

Our care should not be to have lived long as to have lived enough.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

No one has a greater asset for his business than a man’s pride in his work.

Aim for the sky and you’ll reach the ceiling. Aim for the ceiling and you’ll stay on the floor.

There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.

I have a feeling that I make a very good friend, and I’m a good mother, and a good sister, and a good citizen. I am involved in life itself – all of it. And I have a lot of energy and a lot of nerve.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Eating words has never given me indigestion.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

I have rules for a lot of areas of my life. Love is not going to be one of them.

One element of Madonna’s career that really takes center stage is how many times she’s reinvented herself. It’s easier to stay in one look, one comfort zone, one musical style. It’s inspiring to see someone whose only predictable quality is being unpredictable.

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

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

The astronomer will believe that the most erratic comet will yet accomplish its journey and revisit our sphere; but we give up those for lost who have not wandered one-half the distance from the centre of light and life.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

For novelists or musicians, if they really want to create something, they need to go downstairs and find a passage to get into the second basement. What I want to do is go down there, but still stay sane.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

We live in a culture that relishes tearing others down. It’s ultimately more fulfilling, though, to help people reach their goals. Instead of feeling jealous, remember: If God did it for them, He can do it for you.

Searching for music is like searching for God. They’re very similar. There’s an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don’t exist.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Nothing on this earth is standing still. It’s either growing or it’s dying. No matter if it’s a tree or a human being.

Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

The future will be better tomorrow.

A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.

Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

We may stumble and fall but shall rise again; it should be enough if we did not run away from the battle.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.

I think New York has evolved in my work just the way the city has.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

If I can be a leader, I will.

It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

Death to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.

The one charm about marriage is that it makes a life of deception absolutely necessary for both parties.

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.