My goal is to entertain myself and others.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.

My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

So vast is art, so narrow human wit.

The fame thing is interesting because I never wanted to be famous, and I never dreamt I would be famous.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

You can’t do something forever.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone.

I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

I am a dangerous man when turned loose with a typewriter.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

I am not happy, and the quest for happiness as a principal objective is not part of my world. Of course, ever since I can remember, I have done what I felt like doing.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

Probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.

My goal is to be number one in MMA.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

I just want to keep pushing the envelope without it feeling forced.

Do creative, social, and civic attitudes change depending on where we live? Yes, I think so.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older, you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me.

I wake up in the morning and my mind starts making sentences, and I have to get rid of them fast – talk them or write them down.

The art which we may call generally art of the wayside, as opposed to that which is the business of men’s lives, is, in the best sense of the word, Grotesque.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.

I try to really capitalize off of what other rappers really can’t do. There are opportunities that rappers I love simply can’t get, because… you know… I don’t have the tattoos; I have a different image.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

Dream and you shall become.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

I had the classic 40 meltdown. I did. It’s embarrassing. It was pretty funny. But then I recovered. To me, it was like a second adolescence. Hormonally, my body was changing, my mind was changing, and so my relationship to myself and the world around me came to this assault of finiteness.

Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.

I sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.

I don’t have emotional needs, only physical ones.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.