People say you have to hit rock bottom, and, I can tell you, almost dying is as rock bottom as it gets.

I’m no genius.

I am just one human being.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

I’m very, very serious – I’m serious enough not to take myself too seriously. That means I can be completely wedded to the moment. But when I leave that moment, I want to be completely wedded to the next moment.

The secret of happiness is this: let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

Choose people who lift you up.

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

I don’t mind people hating me, because it pushes me.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

The only way round is through.

Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

Everything’s intentional. It’s just filling in the dots.

It’s absolutely normal that different human beings want to go different ways.

In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.

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.

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.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.

Hair is about when you’re younger. I am my hair.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

Courage is grace under pressure.

Face your fears and doubts, and new worlds will open to you.

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

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

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

Character isn’t something you were born with and can’t change, like your fingerprints. It’s something you weren’t born with and must take responsibility for forming.

It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.

Suffering becomes beautiful when anyone bears great calamities with cheerfulness, not through insensibility but through greatness of mind.

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

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. Liberty is dangerous, as hard to live with as it is elating. We must march toward these two goals, painfully but resolutely, certain in advance of our failings on so long a road.

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

Modesty is a learned affectation. And as soon as life slams the modest person against the wall, that modesty drops.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.

What’s really hard is that you could care a lot for someone and not want to live with him anymore.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

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

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

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.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

My entire childhood was steeped in poverty. For me, poverty, in a way, was the first inspiration of my life, a commitment to do something for the poor.

Yeah, I was a delinquent. It was when I was in the ninth grade. I was doing stupid stuff, and the cops came into the class. I was humiliated more than anything.