The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

Conflict cannot survive without your participation.

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.

Little things affect little minds.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.

Today I love myself as I love my god: who could charge me with a sin today? I know only sins against my god; but who knows my god?

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

All good leaders are connectors. They relate well and make people feel confident about themselves and their leader.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a nonworking cat.

If you start to think of your physical and moral condition, you usually find that you are sick.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

The people who truly know me know what I’m like. There have been people who try to say things that aren’t fair, and I check them. And then they don’t like me because I checked them.

When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.

Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

How simple a thing it seems to me that to know ourselves as we are, we must know our mothers names.

If I relaxed, if I took my foot off the gas, I would probably die.

If small things have the power to disturb you, then who you think you are is exactly that: small.

If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‚em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

I kept a diary right after I was born. Day 1: Tired from the move. Day 2: Everyone thinks I’m an idiot.

I am whatever you say I am; if I wasn’t, then why would you say I am.

If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.

I don’t have any oratory skills. But I would not use them if I had.

Shall I not have intelligence with the earth? Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself.

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence.

I hate pain, despite my ability to tolerate it beyond all known parameters, which is not necessarily a good thing.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

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

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.

I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.

I have seen how the foundations of the world are laid, and I have not the least doubt that it will stand a good while.

Our daily deeds as ordinary South Africans must produce an actual South African reality that will reinforce humanity’s belief in justice, strengthen its confidence in the nobility of the human soul, and sustain all our hopes for a glorious life for all.

The human being is a strange mixture of blind instinct, on one hand, and conscience, on the other.

Meditation demands an astonishingly alert mind; it is the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of fragmentation has ceased.

The only shame is to have none.

Many people have an intense feeling about what they’re best at. Too often, they’re driven away from it by other people.

The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.

I know nothing, except the fact of my ignorance.

For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

Sometimes I catch myself stooping, and whenever I am like that, I am sure something is not quite right.

We should play free football, defend lively with a passion, and have the best understanding in offence.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

Remember, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.