Most of the confidence which I appear to feel, especially when influenced by noon wine, is only a pretense.

I never ask anyone else’s opinion. They don’t count.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

A man’s face is his autobiography. A woman’s face is her work of fiction.

Though she be but little, she is fierce.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I’ll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

Reviews condition people. At the end of the day, a lot of human minds are malleable. They can be easily shaped with strong words.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

My confidence is easy to shake. I am very well aware of all of my flaws. I am aware of all the insecurities that I have.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it’s mad that people like me are listened to – you know, rap stars and movie stars.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

I have been influenced in my thinking by both west and east.

As social animals, we are extremely susceptible to the moods of other people. This gives us the power to subtly infuse into people the appropriate mood for influencing them.

In an interconnected age when opportunistic adversaries can work in tandem to destroy stability and prosperity, our country needs to regain its strategic footing. We need to bring the clarity to our efforts before we lose the confidence of the American people and the support of potential allies.

It’d be stupid for me to sit here and say that there aren’t kids who look up to me, but my responsibility is not to them. I’m not a baby sitter.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

Men who have reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret of this.

Only the insecure strive for security.

There was never yet fair woman but she made mouths in a glass.

I always felt an outsider.

I say that in the most humble way: I always knew that I could perform with the best of ‚em and I could deliver with the best of ‚em.

I’m a woman, and anytime you tell a woman that she looks nice, it’s not going to upset her.

A creep is someone who claims he’s one thing but he’s actually another.

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.

It’s important for me to let my fans know I really don’t care. I’m confident.

I don’t think anybody in America ought to be scared.

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.

I’m a bookworm. I know with my physical appearance that I don’t look like the typical reader. I’m in Barnes & Noble all the time, and you can look at people that look like they are supposed to be in there. I am in there, pants sagging, hat backwards.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

I love women with attitude.

Movies can and do have tremendous influence in shaping young lives in the realm of entertainment towards the ideals and objectives of normal adulthood.

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

I’m crazy and I don’t pretend to be anything else.

I have nothing to declare except my genius.

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

Particularly Instagram, people look like they have a much better life than they really do. People basically seem like they are way better-looking than they really are, and they are way happier-seeming than they really are.

It is easy to be beautiful; it is difficult to appear so.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

My style influences my music and everything around me.

What I’d really like to control is not machines, but people.

I believe in that old adage that ‚as goes California, so goes the country.‘

No one is so miserable as the poor person who maintains the appearance of wealth.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

I felt like I might as well have been living in another part of the solar system.

Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‚walking.‘

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

God didn’t make a mistake when He made you. You need to see yourself as God sees you.

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.

You know, when Michael Jackson does the moonwalk, he’s showing off! When Prince or Hendrix do a guitar solo, it’s confidence! I would hate to be at a show and some nervous wreck is sweating up there and doesn’t feel like he deserves to be there.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

I think that once you’ve had a few No. 1s in your career that you’ve kind of proven yourself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything anymore.

I’m odd looking. Sometimes I think I look like a funny muppet.

A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.

I’ve got no need to prove to myself that I can do Shakespeare. I’ve done it.

If you want special results, you have to feel special things and do special things together. You can speak about spirit, or you can live it.