Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Apple has given me a platform to spread music. They’re giving us Latinos a chance to shine.

I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

Conviction never so excellent, is worthless until it coverts itself into conduct.

My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.

I’ve 20,000 hours of clinical practice; you’re not naive after the first few thousand. I’ve helped people deal with things that most people can’t imagine.

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

There’s no happier person than a truly thankful, content person.

There are a lot of groups that feel a little bit strange around me, because I am inclusive.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

I don’t believe in the school of hard knocks, although I’ve had them. All that stuff about whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger is so not true. Do you know what makes you stronger? When people treat you and your art with dignity.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.

Boot camp sucks – SEAL training sucks – but you know what? That’s what makes you good.

Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

Reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.

The Army will take its lessons learned. They’re excellent at looking into themselves and reflecting on what did we do right, what did we do wrong.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

Growing up I didn’t watch movies.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

It’s honestly true that money means nothing to me.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

No sanction can stand against ignited minds.

I joyfully hasten to meet death. If it come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic faculties, it will come, my hard fate notwithstanding, too soon, and I should probably wish it later – yet even then I shall be happy, for will it not deliver me from a state of endless suffering?

When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

It’s an endless proving of myself, that I really am a musician, that I have something to offer in the room. That women can be musicians, women can be rock stars, women can be more than an objectified idea of a pop star.

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

When I do good I feel good, when I do bad I feel bad, and that’s my religion.

You can’t go backward in life.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight, or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative. I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.

Of course it would be nice for everybody and myself if we could win but we can still have a personal or a team win if we achieve a target that is effectively a win for us.

You can do the same thing with $20 million that you would do with $50 million. So at a certain point in your life and in your career, you realise that it’s not about the money.

Things won’t get better dwelling on the past. Accept what has happened. Then move forward.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

Dear friends, we may well sing to our Beloved when it is near the time of our departure. It draws near, and as it approaches, we must not dread it, but rather thank God for it.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

We can continue to learn generation after generation and now is time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way because we are intelligent enough, but we are not loving enough as a species.

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

‚Born this Way‘ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves.

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you, you will be neither successful nor happy.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

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.