Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

Anyone who has declared someone else to be an idiot, a bad apple, is annoyed when it turns out in the end that he isn’t.

Responsibility, I believe, accrues through privilege.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.

I always thought it was wrong for me to take credit for the work that I did. I don’t think that anymore.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

Me, as a person, I grow. I’m like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.

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

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

I should be a postage stamp, because that’s the only way I’ll ever get licked. I’m beautiful. I’m fast. I’m so mean I make medicine sick. I can’t possibly be beat.

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.

I knew ‚Crenshaw‘ had elevated me and distinguished me.

He who angers you conquers you.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

Young people can create beautiful things.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

To God everything is beautiful, good, and just; humans, however, think some things are unjust and others just.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

I made my fair share of mistakes.

The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosopher’s or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself, and that is why you must know yourself – Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.

‚Born this Way‘ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

I worked with someone who told me they’d never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.

When you start to realise how much of what you’ve constructed of yourself is based on deception and lies, that is a horrifying realisation.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

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.

I think it’s a very good thing to leave your country and look at it from afar.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.

My reputation grows with every failure.

When I was younger, I was testing myself and questioning everything, but now it’s less about that and more about these are the years of my life with my family.

You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.

Beautiful sentences pop into my head. Beautiful sentences that aren’t always absolutely accurate. Then, I have to choose between the beautiful sentence and being absolutely accurate. It can be a difficult choice.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

I believe in believing. My coach John Kavanagh is a big atheist, and he is always trying to persuade people to his way of thinking, and I think, ‚What a waste of energy.‘ If people want to believe in this god or that god, that’s fine by me; believe away. But I think we can be our own gods. I believe in myself.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

Thoughts are fine when you don’t confuse them with who you are, and then thoughts are not a problem. Thinking is a wonderful tool to create things in this world. It only becomes problematic and a source of suffering when you confuse thinking with who you are.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

I feel the emotion that life conjures up and the songs I write get me closer to my feelings and realising who I am. It’s a natural process.

The people of Northern Ireland have sorted out my whole life.

I think I’ve got wiser.

I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing.

What it’s like to be me? You know, it’s good to be me. My life is good.

When I was old enough to change my name, I changed it to Mr. T so that the first word out of someone’s mouth was ‚Mister,‘ a sign of respect.

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

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

The single most powerful thing I can be is to be myself.