My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

Something I’ve realized lately, to my shock, is that I am an optimist, in that I think humans are almost infinitely capable of self-change and self-modification, and that we really can build the future that we want if we’re smart about it.

Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my mind.

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.

Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Darn the wheel of the world! Why must it continually turn over? Where is the reverse gear?

My mother did not like children.

Choose people who lift you up.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Where would I be without baseball? Who am I without baseball?

There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

They would not find me changed from him they knew – only more sure of all I thought was true.

The formation of one’s character ought to be everyone’s chief aim.

We conceal it from ourselves in vain – we must always love something. In those matters seemingly removed from love, the feeling is secretly to be found, and man cannot possibly live for a moment without it.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

Life without liberty is like a body without spirit.

We are doomed to cling to a life even while we find it unendurable.

I believe that God’s dream is that we be successful in our careers, and that we be able to send our kids to college. I don’t mean that everyone is going to be rich, and I preach a lot on blooming where you’re planted. But I don’t have the mindset that money is a bad thing.

I love life because what more is there?

Every human being is under construction from conception to death.

It is well for the world that in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster, and will never soften again.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

I never do anything that I don’t want to do.

A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

I deeply regret any harm, or any perceived harm, that I may have done to anyone by any behaviour of mine.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.

I never hold a grudge.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.

Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it… that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

You don’t have to be somebody different to be important. You’re important in your own right.

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

You’ll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

I have surrounded myself with very smart people.

I’ve always regretted that I never was able to talk openly with my parents, especially with my father. I’ve heard and read so many things about my family that I can no longer believe anything; every relative I question has a completely different story from the last.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough. My kids are enough.