Sometimes I wonder if I’m as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

Journalism is popular, but it is popular mainly as fiction. Life is one world, and life seen in the newspapers is another.

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

Your life will be a blessed and balanced experience if you first honor your identity and priority.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.

I guess it’s flattering that everyone believed I was those characters, but it also is dehumanizing.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognize myself.

Language is an intrinsic part of who we are and what has, for good or evil, happened to us.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I’ve always thought it isn’t that different from everybody else’s.

There’s Madeleine, and then there’s ‚Madeleine Albright‘. And I sometimes kind of think, who is this person? Once you become ‚Madeleine Albright‘ it doesn’t go away.

Memories are thoughts that arise. They’re not realities. Only when you believe that they are real, then they have the power over you. But when you realize it’s just another thought arising about the past, then you can have a spacious relationship with that thought. The thought no longer has you in its grip.

People often think I’m a faker, but I’m usually honest, in a certain way – in such a way that often nobody believes me!

My affection for Taiwan… is witnessed by everyone. My wife is Taiwanese and I am a son-in-law of Taiwan. I am half Taiwanese.

People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.

Acting is a nice childish profession – pretending you’re someone else and, at the same time, selling yourself.

I think being an atheist is something you are, not something you do.

Not only is there but one way of doing things rightly, but there is only one way of seeing them, and that is, seeing the whole of them.

I think Mick Jagger would be astounded and amazed if he realized that to many people he is not a sex symbol, but a mother image.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

The making of an American begins at the point where he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land.

I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.

The ‚I think‘ which Kant said must be able to accompany all my objects, is the ‚I breathe‘ which actually does accompany them.

Eyes and ears are poor witnesses to people if they have uncultured souls.

Our judgments when we are pleased and friendly are not the same as when we are pained and hostile.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.

I’ve never been an intellectual but I have this look.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

What is earnest is not always true; on the contrary, error is often more earnest than truth.

In the egoic state, your sense of self, your identity, is derived from your thinking mind – in other words, what your mind tells you about yourself: the storyline of you, the memories, the expectations, all the thoughts that go through your head continuously and the emotions that reflect those thoughts. All those things make up your sense of self.

What good is it being Marilyn Monroe? Why can’t I just be an ordinary woman?

Beauty is all very well at first sight; but who ever looks at it when it has been in the house three days?

I’m a child of God first. Before I became a celebrity, I was baptized a Christian.

We want to answer this classical question, who am I? So I think that most of our works are for art, or whatever we do, including science or religion, tried to answer that question.

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year.

There is no such thing as an underestimate of average intelligence.

A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.

In my work and in myself I reflect black people, women and men, as I reflect others. One day even the most self-protective ones will look into the mirror I provide and not be afraid.

People tried to change my concept of what music is. That music is work, but it’s not like that.

People talk to people who perceive nothing, who have open eyes and see nothing; they shall talk to them and receive no answer; they shall adore those who have ears and hear nothing; they shall burn lamps for those who do not see.

The outside perception and inside perception of Microsoft are so different. The view of Microsoft inside Microsoft is always kind of an underdog thing.

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I guess if I’m a product, either you’re chocolate, you’re vanilla or you’re butterscotch. You can’t be all three.

The greater intellect one has, the more originality one finds in men. Ordinary persons find no difference between men.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

Some men do think I’m a psycho bunny-boiler.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That’s always been the easy way. It’s not that it’s so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it’s just that there’s nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

To kids, I’ve always been more than just some big tough black guy. I train to be tough – I box and do karate – but underneath all that toughness is a tender man.

Not everyone can see the truth, but he can be it.

When somewhat at a distance, I cannot hear the high tones of instruments, voices. In speaking, it is not surprising that there are people who have never noticed it, for as a rule I am absent-minded, and they account for it in that way.

I am what I am. A fighter.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

You say that you are my judge; I do not know if you are; but take good heed not to judge me ill, because you would put yourself in great peril.

Perception often lags behind reality, and I can say from experience that the vast majority of public officials in Louisiana are much better than our reputation holds us to be.