Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

I learned from the guys before me – Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, just to name a few. These are guys that let it all hang out. What they lived is what they took to the stage.

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

There’s no formula.

I have my flaws too, but I am a professional who doesn’t like to miss or lose.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

When we are born we cry that we are come to this great stage of fools.

Energy begets energy.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

I’m my own worst critic, and if I don’t pull off what I think I wanted to do in my head, then I won’t be a happy girl.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Friendship often ends in love, but love in friendship – never.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.

Electrical science has revealed to us the true nature of light, has provided us with innumerable appliances and instruments of precision, and has thereby vastly added to the exactness of our knowledge.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

I believe that one person can make a difference.

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.

Music is really driving my whole life.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.

I’m never going to go to Mars, but I’ve helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

An exceptional company is the one that gets all the little details right. And the people out on the front line, they know when things are not going right, and they know when things need to be improved. And if you listen to them, you can soon improve all those niggly things which turns an average company into an exceptional company.

The eagle has no fear of adversity. We need to be like the eagle and have a fearless spirit of a conqueror!

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

You know, watching Dan Marino and Steve Young get nominated to the Hall of Fame… those guys are unbelievable and they did it for so long. I’d love to play like those guys, but there’s still a long way to go and a lot of growing.

One thing that writers have in common is that they are readers first. They have read lots and lots of stuff, because they’re just infested with lots of stuff.

I was impressed with what someone like Karl Lagerfeld built and did and the house that he made, but there was never really a female figure I wanted to emulate.

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

All art is but imitation of nature.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

I always knew that St. Jude was an amazing organization but meeting the kids and seeing how the hospital works first hand was truly beautiful. It doesn’t feel like a regular hospital all dreary and sad. It’s a colorful, beautiful, comfortable, fun place to live and the energy is wonderful.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.