My folks ain’t graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family – and I come from a big family.

Teachers are expected to be teachers, psychiatrists, nurses, sociologists, psychologists, surrogate moms or dads, as the case may be.

John D. Rockefeller apparently became more of a tightwad the richer he got. I don’t know if it is true, but one story I read was about one of his sons having to wear his older sister’s clothes in order to save money.

My son has died of AIDS.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

I want to – more than anything – to create a moment that people will never forget. Not for me, but for themselves. That’s what I remember about great Super Bowl performances in the past, when you really get lost in the moment with your family.

When I was a teenager, my biggest lessons came from Kenny Chesney, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley. I learned so much from opening up for those artists, and it also taught me how to treat your opening acts and make them feel like they’re part of a family, not just a tour.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

I never had a mother. I suppose a mother is one to whom you hurry when you are troubled.

When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

The thing I want more than anything else? I want to have children. I used to feel for every child I had, I would adopt another.

Call me Jonah. My parents did, or nearly did. They called me John.

When I was young, an eccentric uncle decided to teach me how to lie. Not, he explained, because he wanted me to lie, but because he thought I should know how it’s done so I would recognise when I was being lied to.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.

People tend to think that because I’m a performer and I don’t go to a regular high school that I haven’t personally been affected by bullies. But it’s actually quite the contrary.

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

We’ve got to dumb America up again.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information.

As a single withered tree, if set aflame, causes a whole forest to burn, so does a rascal son destroy a whole family.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

Why not whip the teacher when the pupil misbehaves?

I went to a public school through sixth grade, and being good at tests wasn’t cool.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

My enthusiasm seems to cause my world to endlessly offer me cooperative, co-creating experiences. I’m willing and I’m eager, and not just about my writing – I feel the same way about staying in shape, enjoying my family, giving a lecture, or whatever it may be.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepts blacks in the top ten percent of students, but at MIT this puts them in the bottom ten percent of the class.

My grandmother took me to church on Sunday all day long, every Sunday into the night. Then Monday evening was the missionary meeting. Tuesday evening was usher board meeting. Wednesday evening was prayer meeting. Thursday evening was visit the sick. Friday evening was choir practice. I mean, and at all those gatherings, we sang.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

We combat obstacles in order to get repose, and when got, the repose is insupportable.

My fans saw me get engaged, saw me make that woman my wife, me having kids, me divorcing, me talking about divorce before the divorce, me talking about my kids‘ reaction to that divorce.

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stand a broader mark for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure too.

Making a film is like putting out a fire with sieve. There are so many elements, and it gets so complicated.

I’m not a man deeply interested in technology. It eludes me.

You’ve really got to start hitting the books because it’s no joke out here.

My background educationally is physics and economics, and I grew up in sort of an engineering environment – my father is an electromechanical engineer. And so there were lots of engineery things around me.

When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I’m the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would’ve thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn’t as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

When I was a youngster I lived with different families. I nearly always felt closer to the man of the house. Maybe because I always dreamed of having a father of my own.

A coach, especially at a college level – much more at a college or high school level, than at a pro level – you’re more of a teacher than an actual coach.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

I’ve lost both parents in the last two years, so you pick up on that stuff. That’s the most terrible thing about being an author – standing there at your mother’s funeral, but you don’t switch the author off. So your own innermost thoughts are grist for the mill.

He who is overly attached to his family members experiences fear and sorrow, for the root of all grief is attachment. Thus one should discard attachment to be happy.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

I never thought I’d have children; I never thought I’d be in love, I never thought I’d meet the right person. Having come from a broken home – you kind of accept that certain things feel like a fairy tale, and you just don’t look for them.

Never have we stolen the intelligences of other peoples. On the contrary, in Cuba we have trained tens of thousands of doctors and other top-level professionals, for free, in order to send them back to their own countries.

If I were a woman, I would love to have lots of kids. But for men, I don’t believe in it.

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

Americans want students to get the best education possible. We want schools to prepare children to become good citizens and members of a prosperous American economy.

Education is the cheap defense of nations.

I’ve done everything I wanted to do, even if I have had to pay a very high price – which has been the case most of the time.

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

I’m just a friendly person; that runs in my family.

On the first day of school, my teacher, Miss Mdingane, gave each of us an English name and said that from thenceforth that was the name we would answer to in school. This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education.

My family has never been there for me. They expect things because we’re blood.

I think that’s something that all mothers have to deal with, especially single mothers. We work, and we have to leave the kids behind. And I think that’s one of the reasons that we, not only as women but as families, we have to advocate for early childhood education for all of our children.

If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.

I was very worried about my mother, growing up – a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.

For Africa to move forward, you’ve really got to get rid of malaria.

God wants to help us… He loves us… we are His children. But He will not force His help on us at any time. He sees us when we struggle and fight and complain our way through things. And I believe it breaks His heart, when all we have to do is ask Him for help.