Man’s nature is not essentially evil. Brute nature has been known to yield to the influence of love. You must never despair of human nature.

I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.

No evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

This is the hardest of all: to close the open hand out of love, and keep modest as a giver.

There is one consolation in being sick; and that is the possibility that you may recover to a better state than you were ever in before.

It’s amazing how people will give when you don’t ask. Many of them send money because they believe in the message.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Some people would claim that things like love, joy and beauty belong to a different category from science and can’t be described in scientific terms, but I think they can now be explained by the theory of evolution.

To correct a natural indifference I was placed half-way between misery and the sun. Misery kept me from believing that all was well under the sun, and the sun taught me that history wasn’t everything.

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.

Love in all its subtleties is nothing more, and nothing less, than the more or less direct trace marked on the heart of the element by the psychical convergence of the universe upon itself.

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

O‘ What may man within him hide, though angel on the outward side!

We are what we believe we are.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

Why is it that although it takes us years to get into our messes, we expect God to get us out of them in a few days?

Treat your children like the blessings they are or don’t have them at all.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth, so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say: ‚This is my country.‘

I believe that every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another.

Any man may easily do harm, but not every man can do good to another.

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won’t save us any more than love did.

Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.

I believe when it comes to love, there’s something intangible about who we are attracted to, and I don’t think I have a pattern.

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

I’ve never thought about songwriting as a weapon. I’ve only thought about it as a way to help me get through love and loss and sadness and loneliness and growing up.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be.

It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.

People tend to dwell more on negative things than on good things. So the mind then becomes obsessed with negative things, with judgments, guilt and anxiety produced by thoughts about the future and so on.

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

You want to do good things, and once you’ve done a couple of good things in a row, you think ‚Well gee, let’s not mess this up.‘ But I am lucky at this point that I have something I really love to do, and it completely holds my attention. I never feel frustrated by it.

If every man loves his mother, he’s going to treat the ladies right, with love and respect.

We grow older, but we do not change. We become more sophisticated, but at bottom we continue to resemble our young selves, eager to listen to the next story and the next, and the next.

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish.

They say miracles are past.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

In theory there is a possibility of perfect happiness: To believe in the indestructible element within one, and not to strive towards it.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

The only thing that could spoil a day was people. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.

We should learn to accept that change is truly the only thing that’s going on always, and learn to ride with it and enjoy it.

Don’t be misled by those who claim God doesn’t exist, because He does.

Nicki Minaj, I’m at MTV. I’m going to be honest with you: I love you. I like you. I want you; I want you to be mine. Only reason I’m not telling you this face to face is because I understand that you’re busy.

If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

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

Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‚You can do better than this.‘

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

Because I believe in God and have faith in God, it doesn’t mean I am immortal. It doesn’t mean I am immune, as has been claimed. I am as scared as anyone of getting hurt, especially driving a Formula One car.

I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death… I think… peace and tranquillity will return again.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.