My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

The human race is governed by its imagination.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.

For me, being raised in a free America made all the difference.

I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.

As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project.

He who is contented is rich.

I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.

Your energy, your spirit are important considerations. Feeling petty and frustrated can have reverberating consequences for your ability to think strategically and reach your goals.

Everything isn’t political.

I was a bit challenged when I was younger to stay on the right path.

It’s important for me to let my fans know I really don’t care. I’m confident.

The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand love.

I never looked at my mantel and envisioned an MVP trophy sitting there. This is pretty crazy.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

Why is it so hard for people to believe that white people are poor?! I wouldn’t say I lived in a ghetto; I’d say I lived in the ‚hood. The same friends I had back then are the same people on tour with me now.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

It would be a terrific innovation if you could get your mind to stretch a little further than the next wisecrack.

Sometimes there are no good guys. There are no bad guys. It seems like everybody is in the middle.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.

Is fear preventing you from taking action? Acknowledge the fear, watch it, take your attention into it, be fully present with it. Doing so cuts the link between the fear and your thinking. Don’t let the fear rise up into your mind. Use the power of the Now. Fear cannot prevail against it.

No one even knows one percent of the fabulous history of Man; but thanks to history, we know about occurrences that go beyond the limits of the imaginable.

The way is long if one follows precepts, but short… if one follows patterns.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

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

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be – and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not.

It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.

I hate to be smart.

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

I write songs about stuff that I can’t really get past personally – and then I write a song about it and I feel better.

If you’re afraid to fail, then you’re probably going to fail.

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.

When I was a kid, I thought movies just came from air. I thought they just appeared.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

I used to worry about every little thing, trying to figure out every problem. Well, I realize now how foolish that was. I was no more in control of my life than the man on the moon.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

I feel matured in a way that I’m happy about. I’m at this other stage in my life – and it’s not a bad thing at all.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.