Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come.

I’m not a natural joiner.

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

One cannot violate the promptings of one’s nature without having that nature recoil upon itself.

I grew up in a funny way.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

People who truly understand what is meant by self-reliance know they must live their lives by ethics rather than rules.

Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.

Sometimes a nickname is used instead of the real name. But a nickname may offend either the one named or the parents who gave the name.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

I’m a whopping 5 foot 4 inches tall. I’m not going to get any taller.

I have never been able to renounce the light, the pleasure of being, and the freedom in which I grew up.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

I think the worst part about a breakup sometimes, if one could choose a worst part, would possibly be if you get out of a relationship, and you don’t recognize yourself because you changed a lot about you.

I have always thought of myself as a Czechoslovak Catholic.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

When I first went to places where people were suffering from war and persecution, I felt ashamed of my feelings of sadness. I could see more possibilities in my life.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

I’m fat, but I’m thin inside… there’s a thin man inside every fat man.

This has always been my life and no one else’s, and that’s how it’s always been since the day I came in it.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

I made a decision when my father passed away that I was going to be who God made me to be and not try to preach like my father.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

You don’t have to be like everybody else or do things like everybody else. God created you to be a unique individual, and He wants you to be free to be who He made you to be.

Everyone has been in love, at some point or another.

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

America is not nearly done. We’re only in the beginning. Who knows who we will be? Who knows… what color we will be? It is all something that, maybe, our descendants – if they survive that long – will see.

I felt I had to solve everyone’s problems.

There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

Love is an interesting thing. Perhaps I’ve never been in love before – I don’t really know? I think I have. I guess it’s subjective in that way.

Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. Far the greatest things grow by God’s law out of the smallest. But to live your life, you must discipline it.

I no longer feel attracted to the well-made novel. I want to write the story that will zero in and give you intense, but not connected, moments of experience. I guess that’s the way I see life. People remake themselves bit by bit and do things they don’t understand.

If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do In His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.

You can use your real identity, or you can use phone numbers for something like WhatsApp, and pseudonyms for something like Instagram. But in any of those you’re not just sharing and consuming content, you are also building relationships with people and building an understanding of people.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

It’s almost schizophrenic who I portray in my music.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

Some people are very good at being ‚stars‘ and it suits them. I’m grudging about it and I find it annoying.