The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

Jesus didn’t die for us so we could pretend to be something we’re not.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

The reason I became 297 pounds is because that was comfortable. What was very uncomfortable was running. What was very uncomfortable was being on a diet. What was very uncomfortable was trying to face things that I didn’t want to face. And I also realized, when I was really big, I had no growth. Why? Because I was living comfortable.

I’ve never been a jealous person, and I’ve never felt built up by someone else’s failure – that’s a cheap thrill.

I’m very at ease, and I like it. I never thought I would be such a family-oriented guy; I didn’t think that was part of my makeup. But somebody said that as you get older you become the person you always should have been, and I feel that’s happening to me. I’m rather surprised at who I am, because I’m actually like my dad!

Back in the day, what motivated me was overcoming myself. Now I believe in being a leader. I’ve done it all – I’m good. Now, it’s about setting an example for others to follow. I can’t just talk it – I have to live it.

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

I used to have insecurity about my finances, then I announced that I had debt, and now I don’t have any insecurities.

My future is righteousness.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Learn to say ‚no‘ to the good so you can say ‚yes‘ to the best.

I find that when I get on stage now, I don’t want to perform a lot of my songs because they don’t feel like me. So I want to make songs that are timeless.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

I never say I am a guru.

I have total recall. I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.

Help others and give something back. I guarantee you will discover that while public service improves the lives and the world around you, its greatest reward is the enrichment and new meaning it will bring your own life.

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

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

I don’t have any secrets I need kept any more.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose, because settling is the worst feeling in the world.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

What comes out when life squeezes you? When someone hurts or offends you? If anger, pain and fear come out of you, it’s because that’s what’s inside.

If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do In His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.

Some Christians feel guilty when they are doing something that isn’t ‚spiritual.‘ Somehow or another, they feel the need to hurry through the grocery store, dash through the house cleaning, and rush through all the daily aspects of life that seem irrelevant to their faith.

All my adult life people have been helping me.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

Fears are nothing more than a state of mind.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

I have had fun being who I became, so to speak.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help – we can all help.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

I’m perpetually lonely.

It’s hard to be clear about who you are when you are carrying around a bunch of baggage from the past. I’ve learned to let go and move more quickly into the next place.

Songs are my diaries; they always have been. You have to put your trust in everyone because putting down those real, personal details and thoughts that make a song authentic also opens you right up. I am constantly misunderstood; a lot of people just don’t get me.

I never – you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age, it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

At first, I was scared to show fear because you can never be sure how people will perceive you. But I dared myself to do that, to stand out. Now I’ll talk about being beaten up or robbed or making a stupid decision because of a girl or whatever.

In the game of cricket, a hero is a person who respects the game and does not corrupt the game. The one who doesn’t or corrupts the game, they are the villain. They should be punished, and they have been punished in the past.

I don’t want to be an action star, an action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer, I want my career to get longer.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

Don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better.

We forge the chains we wear in life.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

I’ve definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it’s a little more raw.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

Your timeless self does not age and has no fear of the future. Contemplate your physical self and all its possessions, and practice laughing peacefully at it all.

I make preparations both to live and to die every day, but with the emphasis on not dying, and on acting as if I was going to carry on living.

I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.