Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn’t be anything for us to do.

When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.

Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.

I think women want to take care of themselves, and I think having a voice in how that is done is very important.

If you see everything from the point of view of women being victims in some way, you don’t see the wood for the trees. It is better to be a person than a woman.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself.

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the ‚leaders‘ must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

Clever men are good, but they are not the best.

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

My earliest books focus almost entirely on psychological tools to help readers employ effective commonsense approaches to problems. There are no references to God or a higher self in the first 15 or so years of my publishing history.

A whole people with the ballot in their hands possess the most conclusive and unlimited power ever entrusted to humanity.

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.

Inside of every problem lies an opportunity.

If you deserve it, go get it.

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.

I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

He who is brave is free.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

We are Divine enough to ask and we are important enough to receive.

Time and money spent in helping men to do more for themselves is far better than mere giving.

I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered. I feed my daughter almost exclusively organic food.

We can’t afford not to educate girls and give women the power and the access that they need.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

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

The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

We talk about this concept of openness and transparency as the high-level ideal that we’re moving towards at Facebook. The way that we get there is by empowering people to share and connect. The combination of those two things leads the world to become more open.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

I was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important, which is empowering people with software.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

I’m not particularly a feminist, but if you get women off the animal cycle of reproduction and give them some say in how many children they’ll have, immediately the floor will rise.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

I’d rather be a victor than a victim.

There’s an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.