People see me on the street, and they point to me, and they’re like, ‚Hey! All right, all right, all right!‘

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise although the philosophers generally call it recognition!

Happiness is within the reach of everyone, rich or poor. Yet comparatively few people are happy. I believe the reason for this is that the majority don’t recognize happiness even when it is within their grasp.

When good Americans die they go to Paris.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

If a man could have half of his wishes, he would double his troubles.

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

What kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

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

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.

Having nothing, nothing can he lose.

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean.

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

There was my name up in lights. I said, ‚God, somebody’s made a mistake.‘ But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, ‚Remember, you’re not a star.‘ Yet there it was up in lights.

Like it or not, there are a lot of dance teachers in this country who respect me, whether they personally like me or not.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Life’s like a play: it’s not the length, but the excellence of the acting that matters.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

I think that we have opportunities all around us – sometimes we just don’t recognize them.

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.

We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.

The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

He shines in the second rank, who is eclipsed in the first.

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

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

It feels good to have your work respected again.

This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

He who does not trust enough, Will not be trusted.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

The art is long, life is short.

Lots of people who complained about us receiving the MBE received theirs for heroism in the war – for killing people. We received ours for entertaining other people. I’d say we deserve ours more.

Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.

The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Undeserved praise causes more pangs of conscience later than undeserved blame, but probably only for this reason, that our power of judgment are more completely exposed by being over praised than by being unjustly underestimated.

It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

It is another’s fault if he be ungrateful, but it is mine if I do not give. To find one thankful man, I will oblige a great many that are not so.

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.