My parents are my backbone. Still are. They’re the only group that will support you if you score zero or you score 40.

God puts people in our lives on purpose so we can help them succeed and help them become all He created them to be. Most people will not reach their full potential without somebody else believing in them.

The chain of wedlock is so heavy that it takes two to carry it – and sometimes three.

One man cannot hold another man down in the ditch without remaining down in the ditch with him.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

The answer to the problem of inequality is for the people who are fortunate enough to either have been gifted or deserved more to do everything they can to make the communities around them as strong as they possibly can.

My husband and I had to raise five of my younger brothers and sisters. They lived with us. We sent them to school.

Life guided me to being a bodyguard, protecting people, then in the movies, so I’m happy with everything because basically all I ever wanted to do was be a good son and take care of my mother.

I go to sleep thinking about my kids being spoiled and I wake up thinking about it.

My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.

Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.

Encouragement to all women is – let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.

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.

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.

I’m happy that I have my family, and I’m happy that I had Virginia, where I grew up, to retreat to any time I felt overwhelmed. Whenever there were times when I felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me and I was floating in this crazy space, I would stop and go back to that neighborhood and realize nothing’s changed, really.

Friends applaud, the comedy is over.

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. The young they keep out of mischief; to the old they are a comfort and aid in their weakness, and those in the prime of life they incite to noble deeds.

Still and all, why bother? Here’s my answer. Many people need desperately to receive this message: I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.

My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

Standing in support of children is something we should all be able to get behind, regardless of party affiliation.

A man should never neglect his family for business.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids.

There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and there are patriots who supported the war in Iraq. We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.

I was fortunate and I was lucky that I had a couple of people in my life who cared about me. I had good, loving parents.

Alimony – the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

I met India Arie, who is one of my favorite artists of all time. It was really sweet; I was broken up with a month before, and she stayed up texting me all night and was helping me through it. Her text message looks like a song of hers. She’s sort of become my fairy godmother.

All the learnin‘ my father paid for was a bit o‘ birch at one end and an alphabet at the other.

My family was mostly unemployed working class.

I feel like I’m the kind of guy that would have kids before getting married. The first thing would be kids.

Parents and teachers, learn to listen, then listen to learn from children.

When I was kidnapped, my parents snapped into action. They rented out my room.

One time, this guy was bothering my mother, and me and my brothers had a stern talking with the guy and a little bit of physicality with him. So he disappeared. But I’m not a magician.

As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible.

So while an incredible amount of progress has been made, on this fifth anniversary, I wanted to come here and tell the people of this city directly: My administration is going to stand with you – and fight alongside you – until the job is done. Until New Orleans is all the way back, all the way.

I feel like my message is to let people know that God is a good God, that He’s on their side, and no matter what happens, He has a great plan for them.

Do not be afraid to ask for help. Nobody gets through college on their own.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

I have to tell you, my seven-year-old granddaughter said to my daughter, her mother, ‚So what’s the big deal about Grandma Maddy having been Secretary of State? Only girls are Secretaries of State.‘ Most of her lifetime, it’s true. But at the time it really was a big deal.

My whole family have all been through a difficult time. My focus is my children, our children.

When I was growing up, my family was so poor we couldn’t afford to pay attention.

My mother loved children – she would have given anything if I had been one.

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

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.

My family wasn’t rich, so when it comes to money, I tend to think, ‚Err on the side of caution.‘

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

When we talk about mortality, we are talking about our children.

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.

My mother did not like children.

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn’t have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family.

It’s not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It’s inappropriate.

I love being American, and I love family. I love having a family, and I feel so blessed, and I feel like God gave me exactly what I wanted, so now I have to do the right thing in God’s eyes also. Just follow what God wants me to do.

Fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.

Christmas morning, I’m going to open presents with my kids. I’m going to take pictures of them opening the presents. Then I’m going to come to the Staples Center and get ready to work.

I listen to my mother, and that keeps me out of trouble. I’m a good son.

I just genuinely feel that that’s what you do when you’re an artist: You stick up for the people around you.

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.

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?