Man’s real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.

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

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.

I think I have a certain respect for people, you know. And I guess a lot of times I expect that respect to go both ways.

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

Even if my songs are quite sad or quite dark, I don’t want my songs to make people sad. It’s very important for me that all my songs have some kind of hope or light.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again.

I don’t know how to have a normal relationship because I try to act normal and love from a normal place and live a normal life, but there is sort of an abnormal magnifying glass, like telescope lens, on everything that happens.

I am just happy to be part of the Nike family.

It’s not catastrophes, murders, deaths, diseases, that age and kill us; it’s the way people look and laugh, and run up the steps of omnibuses.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.

What we need to understand is that when traditions become laws, rules, obligations and expectations others put on us that we don’t want to fulfill, then they lose real meaning and steal the joy from our lives. And if we’re too religious, we won’t be able to be led by the Holy Spirit and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.

While we may lose heart, we never have to lose hope.

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

People don’t want drama 365 days a year. I’m a sense of relief; it’s my job to take your mind off what’s bad for that brief second you’re in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I’m doing.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.

Civilisations have been destroyed many times, and this civilisation is no different. It can be destroyed. We can think of time in terms of millions of years and life will resume little by little. The cosmos operates for us very urgently, but geological time is different.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

I’ve read the last page of the Bible. It’s all going to turn out all right.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one’s own character to himself.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.

I like gaps; all my stories have gaps. It seems this is the way people’s lives present themselves.

Most people would assume my business success, and the wealth that comes with it, have brought me happiness. But I know I am successful, wealthy, and connected because I am happy.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

The basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a bore. It is not so much a war as an endless standing in line.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail. Reasons the card, but passion the gale.

Forty is the old age of youth, fifty is the youth of old age.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

Fight with a happy heart.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

We do not know what love is. We know the symptoms of it, the pleasure, the pain, the fear, the anxiety and so on. We try to solve the symptoms, which becomes a wandering in darkness. We spend our days and nights in this, and it is soon over in death.

Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.

There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.

I believe that one person can make a difference.

Everywhere in life, the true question is not what we gain, but what we do.

A cat is only itself, representative of the strong forces of life that won’t let go.

People – especially white people – they want me to be a role model just because of the life I lead. The things I say in my songs, they expect it of me.

The great quest of life has always been to discover truth.

My whole life has been one big improvisation.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‚good,‘ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.

For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

A useless life is an early death.

The greatest wealth is to live content with little.

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.