Music is really driving my whole life.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

If you’re doing your best, you won’t have any time to worry about failure.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

I had a rough childhood coming up, and I just took all that negative energy and made it very positive for myself to drive me. I’m a very driven person. I have passion that almost scares people, just to be successful and make it no matter what.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

To be honest with you, when I got into this I never thought about reviews. I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

Pretty much my whole life, I’ve been a performer and have loved singing and writing songs in my room for my own ears.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

The only shame is to have none.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they at. Do your thing – continue to rock it – because obviously, God wants you here.

I never wanted to be a scientist per se. I wanted to be a naturalist.

If my businesses or my investments are not profitable, then I don’t eat. And I like to eat.

Where I come from it was really unheard of to be at a party and someone says, ‚What kind of music do you make?‘, and you say, ‚Pop music.‘ You may as well have ‚I’m not cool‘ stamped on your forehead.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

I always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.

‚House of Balloons‘ was special because I had no deadlines, and nobody knew me, so there were no expectations. Spent a year making it perfect. Every song had at least, like, 7 different versions to them before picking the right one.

I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

The great fun in my life has been getting up every morning and rushing to the typewriter because some new idea has hit me.

I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that’s it. The lifestyle doesn’t change.

Playing basketball all my life, I’ve collected a lot of different basketball shoes. It’s pretty much all I wear.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

I do probably 60 concerts a year in the States. And I go out to clubs in the week. I’m doing new stuff all the time.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

The immigration issue is, I recognize, one that generates a lot of passion, but it does not make sense for us to want to push talent out.

I don’t know anything about music. In my line you don’t have to.

There’s not much time to unwind, but you know what, it’s because I love what I do. I look forward to the season. I look forward to playing games. It doesn’t ever feel like work.

Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

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

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.