My parents were dealing with evictions and repossessions and electricity getting shut off, and I just realized that I had to get it together.

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

I tried acting, liked it, and stuck with it. I saw it as the way I would keep that promise to myself of getting back at those who had made my school life a misery.

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

I’ve learned a lot since I was a new mother. My approach to struggle and shame now is to talk to yourself like you’d talk to someone you love and reach out to tell your story.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

I grew up in a funny way.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

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.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that the only solid, though a far slower reformation, is what each begins and perfects on himself.

Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there’s gonna come a time that you’re gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.

Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms.

The reason that I’m here at all is because of my relationship with my family and their encouragement of me to be a musician and to work hard. As long as I stay there in that space, I can do anything. That’s my truth.

I let the American people down.

It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.

History will point out some of the things I did wrong and some of the things I did right.

I just feel so much more comfortable and confident every game I play.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

Some people are very good at being ‚stars‘ and it suits them. I’m grudging about it and I find it annoying.

By indignities men come to dignities.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

As a mom, I know it is my responsibility, and no one else’s, to raise my kids. But we have to ask ourselves, what does it mean when so many parents are finding their best efforts undermined by an avalanche of advertisements aimed at our kids.

There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.

Being the only man in the household with my mom definitely helped me grow up fast.

Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.

After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

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

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

I grew up where, when a door closed, a window didn’t open. The only thing I had was cracks. I’d do everything to get through those cracks – scratch, claw, bite, push, bleed. Now the opportunity is here. The door is wide open, and it’s as big as a garage.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.

I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

In a universe that’s an intelligent system with a divine creative force supporting it, there simply can be no accidents. As tough as it is to acknowledge, you had to go through what you went through in order to get to where you are today, and the evidence is that you did.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

You can’t go backward in life.

I feel that sin and evil are the negative part of you, and I think it’s like a battery: you’ve got to have the negative and the positive in order to be a complete person.

At my lowest point, I was nearly $700,000 in debt.

The best part about being in your thirties is you know what works for you.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying.

We are wiser than we know.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.

For me, there is no such thing as a negative experience.