That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

Do whatever you will, but first be such as are able to will.

I played a lot of tough clubs in my time. Once a guy in one of those clubs wanted to bet me $10 that I was dead. I was afraid to bet.

Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.

Little things affect little minds.

Black people comprehend the South. We understand its weight. It has rested on our backs… I knew that my heart would break if ever I put my foot down on that soil, moist, still, with old hurts. I had to face the fear/loathing at its source or it would consume me whole.

Man’s unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness; it is because there is an Infinite in him, which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the Finite.

It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.

I wanted to write a book that talked about the emotions of children, which is the rainbow. We all have moods. We talk about being blue when we’re sad, and being yellow when we’re cowards, and when we’re mad, we’re red.

I’ve noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it’s far enough in the future.

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

If you abandon the present moment, you cannot live the moments of your daily life deeply.

I think I could go away tomorrow. I’ve already accomplished something. It’s such a selfish business that sometimes I get sick of myself.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

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.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

We’re always looking over our shoulders, ‚what they will think, what the press will think, what will this one – am I making the right career move?‘ When you’re young you have to do all that to survive, I suppose.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless.

Pride deafens us to the advice or warnings of those around us.

No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now.

My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one.

I knew that I was ‚interesting‘ at 18 because I was aware that I could get away with doing things on stage.

I want to grow old without facelifts. I want to have the courage to be loyal to the face I have made.

I try to see the good in everybody, and I don’t care who people are as long as they’re themselves, whatever that is.

I am who I am. That’s why my friends and peers respect and appreciate me. I don’t change or cater my actions to fit my surroundings. I’m myself 24/7. People appreciate that.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

I tend to get bored quickly, which means I must be boring.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

No one is laughable who laughs at himself.

Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

I would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

I am tough, but deep inside my toughness, I like to let people know I’m an old-fashioned mama’s boy.

Even if you’re happy with the life you’ve chosen, you’re still curious about the other options.

This happiness consisted of nothing else but the harmony of the few things around me with my own existence, a feeling of contentment and well-being that needed no changes and no intensification.

The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.

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.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

No man is hurt but by himself.

There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.

Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.

The Nation of Islam’s main focus was teaching black pride and self-awareness. Why should we keep trying to force ourselves into white restaurants and schools when white people didn’t want us? Why not clean up our own neighborhoods and schools instead of trying to move out of them and into white people’s neighborhoods?

When you start to realise how much of what you’ve constructed of yourself is based on deception and lies, that is a horrifying realisation.

Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.