My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

It’s hard knowing who to trust with your personal life. When you cry in your room at night, you don’t always know who to call. So I am very close to my family.

There are times when you throw an interception and you’re beating yourself up.

It’s simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they’re done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it’s what they see. That’s where my head is at.

I grew up around lots of men – my father, my brothers, my uncles – so I wasn’t intimidated by them.

I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I’m just like, ‚Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do‘.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.

Too many people treat parenting like it’s the 20th item on their to-do list.

I’m touring the world, not doing nothing against the law, getting money to feed my family. I got employees that have felonies, and they can’t get jobs. They work for me.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

Phil Niekro and his brother were pitching against each other in Atlanta. Their parents were sitting right behind home plate. I saw their folks more that day than they did the whole weekend.

We can never learn too much of His will towards us, too much of His messages and His advice. The Bible is His word and its study gives at once the foundation for our faith and an inspiration to battle onward in the fight against the tempter.

I delayed my father’s funeral because of cricket.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

I was very blessed to have family and friends, but particularly family, who told me I was not only all right, I was just right, so I believe that my brain is a good one, and it’s lasting me very well.

I played a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

A grandmother pretends she doesn’t know who you are on Halloween.

Be extra careful in the work environment with those who like to maintain their position through charm and being political, rather than getting things done. They are very prone to envying and hating those who work hard and get results. They will slander and sabotage you without any warning.

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

My decision to register women confirms what is already obvious throughout our society-that women are now providing all types of skills in every profession. The military should be no exception.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Aviation offered such fun as crossing the continent in planes large and small, trying the whirling rotors of an autogiro, making record flights. With these activities came opportunity to know women everywhere who shared my conviction that there is so much women can do in the modern world and should be permitted to do irrespective of their sex.

Family and friendships are two of the greatest facilitators of happiness.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

Always kiss your children goodnight, even if they’re already asleep.

That’s when you know you’re the greatest: when you’re the greatest, and people still put odds against you.

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

I have practically no private life. I’m already used to this and ready for it. Yes, sometimes it is hard, but it is the choice I made.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.

Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

A home without books is a body without soul.

The kids are a big part of my schedule.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

My focus is my art, and that’s what I love to do. I have to be really passionate in order to do something. I’ve turned down many things that I just didn’t believe in.

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

I like to think my dad was easygoing and kind, and I think some of those things have been passed down. I am like him in a sense of being positive and hopeful. He was compassionate, and I’ve got a lot of that in me as well.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.