The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Don’t compare yourself with other people; compare yourself with who you were yesterday.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

When I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

Competition gives me energy. It keeps me focused.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

Honor thy error as a hidden intention.

Maturity is a bitter disappointment for which no remedy exists, unless laughter could be said to remedy anything.

All of our problems start in our minds.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

If you’re not going to be rewarded for your virtues, and instead you’re going to be punished for them, then what’s your motivation to continue?

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

Sometimes if you got a problem deep rooted in your life, it takes a little bit of time to overcome it in that area.

Your greatest asset is your earning ability. Your greatest resource is your time.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.

He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

I never sell a book. I sell myself. And the way to sell yourself is to be an instrument of love.

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

The fact is that since you’re a divine creation who originated in the world of Spirit, you have exactly the right amount of smarts to accomplish all that you need and want to do while you’re here on earth. It’s all perfect… and so are you!

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education… Without a gentle contempt for education no man’s education is complete.

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.

Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit.

Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be carved.

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

I’m crazy, but I’m not too crazy.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Energy begets energy.