Snoop ain’t never cosigned me, but I know everybody is like, ‚That’s the next Snoop.‘ Nah, I’m Nipsey, and I got to work to define myself.

Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

To write it, it took three months; to conceive it three minutes; to collect the data in it all my life.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Almost any biographer, if he respects facts, can give us much more than another fact to add to our collection. He can give us the creative fact; the fertile fact; the fact that suggests and engenders.

You can’t die with an unfinished book.

Music is the voice that tells us that the human race is greater than it knows.

It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

I write some country music. There’s a song called ‚I Hope You Dance.‘ Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody beat me to it.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

I always try to put a seed of hope into people’s hearts. I’m not there to teach them doctrine necessarily, but to let them know that God is a good God, and has a plan for their lives. Hopefully, that will restore their faith, or draw them into faith.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

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

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

In art the best is good enough.

‚Lives‘ is one of those books I should really have written when I was younger. It is the classic childhood, adolescence, breakthrough-into-maturity book. Every beginning writer has that material – and after that, you’re not sure what you can do.

Bill Gates has always been a mentor and inspiration for me even before I knew him. Just growing up, I admired how Microsoft was mission-focused.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

I just love Bowie. I think he’s the ultimate inventor.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

I now possess the tools as a producer and a songwriter to really just go out and make smashes all day long. I could make an album full of smash records that got pop appeal. But my heart is in hip-hop. My heart is in telling stories. And it’s like therapy for me.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

The best thing I did was to choose the right heroes.

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

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.

All of my writing is God-given.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

But when I hear a great song, I can’t help but be inspired by it, regardless of whatever genre that song falls under.

Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

You don’t have to be a renowned artist like Q-Tip to try your hand at poetry. You don’t need any special equipment – that’s the beauty of it.

Once I’ve written something it does tend to run away from me. I don’t seem to have any part of it – it’s no longer my piece of writing.

I hope my story inspires everyone out there to keep hustling and chasing their dreams.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

The greatest story of all is Colonel Sanders. He didn’t start until he was sixty-six on a freeway bypass for his chicken shop. Anything is possible!

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.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.