The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

Should you find yourself in a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is likely to be more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying.

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

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.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

I focus on my own job.

All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

I have to keep improving myself and challenging myself.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Life is tragic. You are tiny and flawed and ignorant and weak, and everything else is huge, complex, and overwhelming.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.

Let go of yesterday.

Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

For time is the longest distance between two places.

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

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

Doubt grows with knowledge.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

One always dies too soon or too late. And yet, life is there, finished: the line is drawn, and it must all be added up. You are nothing other than your life.

I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.

Jealousy… is a mental cancer.

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

I knew I wasn’t going to be a rocket scientist – let’s not be fools – but I wasn’t going to be a bum.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Hair is about when you’re younger. I am my hair.

Therapy? I don’t need that. The roles that I choose are my therapy.

My main goal is to be a self-made man and have control over what’s mine.

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again.

Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

I was bullied as a boy – lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

I could never identify with that word, ‚weak.‘

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

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

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

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.