The key is taking responsibility and initiative, deciding what your life is about and prioritizing your life around the most important things.

I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

We should purify our innate well of contentment – what a wonderful expression – and then external things will be in harmony with us.

Initiative is doing the right things without being told.

If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.

I think of myself more as a sportsman than I do an artist.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so.

Indeed, it is as important to learn how to receive a blessing as it is to be willing to give one.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

I’m super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I’m critical of other people, too – I try not to be, though.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

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.

Life’s too short to hang out with people who aren’t resourceful.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

You have to motivate yourself with challenges. That’s how you know you’re still alive.

In art, at a certain level, there is no ‚better than.‘ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on the most supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.

Over the years, I’ve learned that a confident person doesn’t concentrate or focus on their weaknesses – they maximize their strengths.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

I’ll promise to go easier on drinking and to get to bed earlier, but not for you, fifty thousand dollars, or two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will I give up women. They’re too much fun.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

I like to be in control of how I look and how I feel and how I act.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you’ve got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I’m not sure any country, either the United States or I don’t hear of anyone else, who’s willing to take on that responsibility.

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.

It is after all the greatest art to limit and isolate oneself.

Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame.

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

The function of posterity is to look after itself.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

Words are powerful; if you change your words, you can change your life.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

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

I mean we all need a second chance sometimes.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.

The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.

Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world. Mine knows that it will not reform it, but its task is perhaps even greater. It consists in preventing the world from destroying itself.

Every person above the ordinary has a certain mission that they are called to fulfill.

I think people take me as seriously as I want them to. They take me as seriously as I take myself – let’s put it that way.

My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.