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.

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

The environment that we call society is created by past generations; we accept it, as it helps us to maintain our greed, possessiveness, illusion.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

I think women love very hard. We love men. We just love with everything we have. And sometimes, I don’t know that that love is met with the type of dignity that we wish it would be met with.

Looking back on the production of ‚Nevermind,‘ I’m embarrassed by it now. It’s closer to a Motley Crue record than it is a punk rock record.

As a kid from Compton, you can get all the success in the world and still question your worth.

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.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

I’ve seen my friends take someone back after they’ve cheated because they fit perfectly.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs… I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love – first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

But there is a difference between cozying up to power and being close to power.

What we live by we die by.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

I try to not focus on what people expect from me.

For me, ‚risky‘ is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is.

By the time you’ve reached your sixties, you do know that one day you will die, and knowing that is at least the beginning of wisdom.

My husband has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.

Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

War has always been the grand sagacity of every spirit which has grown too inward and too profound; its curative power lies even in the wounds one receives.

What good am I? I can’t have kids. I can’t cook. I’ve been divorced three times. Who would want me?

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?

A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.

What keeps me motivated is love and passion.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

Sometimes I just sit still and enjoy God’s presence.

What the heck is true love? I remember feeling, back when I was 12 and ‚going‘ with this girl, ‚Is this true love?‘

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

When you’re traveling constantly, every day you become inspired, and it shows in my work, sonically, lyrically, visually. Conversations with women with different accents and stories told in those accents. I like to create characters based on different people I’ve met, and relationships. I like to tell stories loosely based on real-life events.

I’m stupid, I’m ugly, I’m dumb, I smell. Did I mention I’m stupid?

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.

I am tough, but deep inside my toughness, I like to let people know I’m an old-fashioned mama’s boy.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.

Men are by nature merely indifferent to one another; but women are by nature enemies.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

It’s more interesting for me to figure out how to be superior in areas where I’m naive, where I’m a novice.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.

Man’s enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.

I feel matured in a way that I’m happy about. I’m at this other stage in my life – and it’s not a bad thing at all.

The concept of loneliness and exile and self-sufficiency continually bucks me up.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.

We moralize among ruins.

I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and He never did.

I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

It’s always a struggle growing up in Akron.

Love can do much, but duty more.

Breathing in, I am aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart and know that my heart still functions normally. I feel grateful for my heart.

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.

There is no such thing as a lovers‘ oath.