Sometimes I feel my whole life has been one big rejection.

One of the things I definitely think of as a driver of me is fear. And it’s fear of failure, fear of being overtaken.

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.

What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

A lot of the problems I had with fame I was bringing on myself. A lot of self-loathing, a lot of woe-is-me. Now I’m learning to see the positive side of things, instead of, like, ‚I can’t go to Kmart. I can’t take my kids to the haunted house.‘

Individuals need to be willing to face truth about their attitudes, behaviors, even what we want out of life.

I’m so nervous. I’ve always been nervous, ever since I was a kid.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

Maybe ‚loner‘ is too strong a word, but I’ve always enjoyed being on my own.

Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‚You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.‘ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.

The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.

When it comes to everybody else’s thing and their lane and their timing, I’m never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody’s biggest mistake if that’s their intention.

I’m not trying to follow a set of rules and stuff. I’m just living my life.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.

For me, the world that I inhabit in reality is probably a very different world than the one people expect that I would be in.

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

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

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

Never complain. Never explain.

You know how advice is. You only want it if it agrees with what you wanted to do anyway.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

I always tell young girls, surround yourself with goodness. I learned early on how to get the haters out of my life.

I am who I am and I say what I think. I’m not putting a face on for the record.

I got teased my entire school life. What they were picking on I don’t even understand.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

My father wasn’t perfect. He had a temper. I took some of that. He would snap, but the older he got, he started calming down. He learned about life, but the thing that he taught my whole family was that family was the most important thing and, no matter what, if a family member needs you, you go and help them out; you get there.

Humble people ask for help.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

It was completely fruitless to quarrel with the world, whereas the quarrel with oneself was occasionally fruitful and always, she had to admit, interesting.

You can’t do something forever.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

Men must know their limitations.

It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

I learned to fly a few years ago in England. It’s the only place I’m completely alone – up in the air, detached from everything.

I put my flaws on front street. So the world accepted my flaws, so I don’t have any flaws.

Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time.

I came up from a difficult background.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

I’m crazy, but I’m not too crazy.

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

You know, it’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don’t live angry, let go now!

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

I think it is the height of ignorance to believe that the sexual act is an independent function necessary like sleeping or eating. Seeing, therefore, that I did not desire more children, I began to strive after self-control. There was endless difficulty in the task.

I have great respect for the past. If you don’t know where you’ve come from, you don’t know where you’re going. I have respect for the past, but I’m a person of the moment. I’m here, and I do my best to be completely centered at the place I’m at, then I go forward to the next place.

In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a ‚continent,‘ a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness.

Unless I am both capable of and willing to reopen the wound every time I write a song, if I choose to not look inside myself to write music, I’m really not worth being called an artist at all.

A man must now swallow more belief than he can digest.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

How many things there are concerning which we might well deliberate whether we had better know them.