Thank God, I never was cheerful. I come from the happy stock of the Mathers, who, as you remember, passed sweet mornings reflecting on the goodness of God and the damnation of infants.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person. So violence isn’t merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper.

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.

I’ve realized that being happy is a choice. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way or not be fun to be around, but you have to be happy. When I get logical and I don’t trust my instincts – Thats when I get in trouble.

Non-violence requires a double faith, faith in God and also faith in man.

He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.

I think you can judge from somebody’s actions a kind of a stability and sense of purpose perhaps created by strong religious roots. I mean, there’s a certain patience, a certain discipline, I think, that religion helps you achieve.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.

Despite the slowness, the infidelity, the errors and sins it committed and might still commit against its members, the Church, trust me, has no other meaning and goal but to live and witness Jesus.

Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It’s like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

As a father, safety is always a top of mind issue for me.

Lil Wayne, that’s my brother. Birdman, that’s family.

The best thing about being a dad? Well, I think it’s just the thing that every man wants – to have a son and heir.

Happy the people whose annals are vacant.

The scab is a traitor to his God, his mother, and his class.

Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.

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

My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56. She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.

I don’t think even ungodly people realize what a society would be like that had no godly influence at all.

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

I grew up in a musical family; the majority of my growing up was done in Hawaii. It’s what we do. You sing, you dance, you play ukulele and you drink.

I’d call him a sadistic, hippophilic necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.

Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.

In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.

I believe God wants you to have money to pay your bills, send your kids to college and do charity work and build orphanages. There’s the teaching that we’re supposed to be poor to show that we’re humble. I don’t buy that. I think we’re supposed to be leaders. We’re supposed to excel.

If I ever had twins, I’d use one for parts.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

There’s a deceptive sin that can keep us from walking in love: pride. It’s deceptive because when you have pride, you’re usually too proud to admit it. I know this because I used to have teachings on pride and they didn’t sell well.

My religion encompasses all religions. I believe in God, I believe in the universe. I believe you are god, I believe I am god; I believe the earth is god and the universe is god. We’re all god.

Our vision and commitment is towards the country’s progress, its place in the world and the happiness of its people.

Next to religion, baseball has had a greater impact on our American way of life than any other American institution.

Glory be and praise to God. I didn’t do any of this. God did. I don’t have a recipe or a blueprint. I prayed for it, and my prayers are continuing to be answered.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

I tell you in truth: all men are Prophets or else God does not exist.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

You know, God gave me a gift to do other things besides play the game of basketball.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

At times in my life the only place I have been happy is when I am on stage.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

Obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live.

I cannot remember a moment in my life when I have not felt the love of my family. We were a family that would have killed for each other – and we still are.

All that the future holds in store for each sacred child of God will be shaped by his or her parents, family, friends, and teachers. Thus, our faith now becomes part of our posterity’s faith later.

I believe the universe is governed by the laws of science. The laws may have been decreed by God, but God does not intervene to break the laws.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won’t get played Huh?

Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing I can imagine that would make me more unhappy than to fail in the effort.

I love designing at the moment, I’m so happy with my work.

A merry heart doeth good like medicine.

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

From my point of view, God is the light that illuminates the darkness, even if it does not dissolve it, and a spark of divine light is within each of us.

I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill.

Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter.

I think there’s a lot of similarity between what people try to do with religion with what they want from art. In fact, I very specifically think that they are same thing. Not that religion and art are the same, but that they both tap into the same need we have for surrender.