The noblest search is the search for excellence.

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

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

I feel like I have a job to do, like I constantly have to reinvent myself. The more I up the ante for myself, the better it is in the long run. I try to interact with my fans as much as possible. It’s good that the person I’m being onstage isn’t really an act. It’s really me.

‚Perfection‘ to me is, I walk away from a situation and say, ‚I did everything I could do right there. There was nothing more that I could do.‘ I was a hundred percent, like the meter was at the top. There was nothing else I could have done. You know? Like, I worked as hard as I possibly could have. That’s perfection.

Speak the truth, do not yield to anger; give, if thou art asked for little; by these three steps thou wilt go near the gods.

When you’re older you want to learn from other people.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

We become wiser by adversity; prosperity destroys our appreciation of the right.

People can try to reinvent themselves. I don’t think you can really change who you are, though, because who you are is pretty much where you came from and what you’ve done up to now.

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

I’m of the school of thought where, if you can’t sort something out for yourself, no one can help you. Rehab is great for some people but not others.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

Observe all men, thyself most.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

I wouldn’t say I have a lack of fear. In fact, I’d like my fear emotion to be less because it’s very distracting and fries my nervous system.

When you make a mistake and the devil comes and tells you ‚You’re no good,‘ you don’t have to take on the guilt and condemnation he wants to put on you. No! You can immediately confess your mistake to God, thank Him for forgiving you and cleansing you with the blood of Jesus, and move forward in the victory of His grace and forgiveness.

It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.

Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow blood will leave my body above the breast.

We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

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

Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you’re under reproach, your behavior shows it.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.

If you’re not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more, then clearly we cannot use the big organization of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us, and it can’t be of very much use to yourself.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

I just want to be just as everyone else. I want to educate myself and be just like a normal teenager.

The self is hateful.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.

Frankly, I think that the news industry is critically important because it points out things and surfaces truths that can often be uncomfortable. I think that that’s working, and the spotlight has been pointed on things that we have a responsibility to do better, and I accept that.

The risk for me would be in not taking one – that’s the only thing that’s really risky for me.

One of the best mental disciplines for people to implement is simply putting together a schedule or a task list and actually executing it. Write the list or the schedule the night before, and then do what you said you would do. Life becomes much better when you do that.

Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.

The idea of recognising your strengths and using them in as versatile a way as you can is cool to me.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

I have a personal ambition to live my life honestly and honor the true love that I’ve had and also the people I’ve had around me.

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

Do I dare set forth here the most important, the most useful rule of all education? It is not to save time, but to squander it.

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.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution.

The prospect of dating someone in her twenties becomes less appealing as you get older. At some point in your life, your tolerance level goes down and you realize that, with someone much younger, there’s nothing really to talk about.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

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

We spend our time searching for security and hate it when we get it.

We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

Libraries raised me.

I’m always afraid of failing. I have to quiet that fear if I’m going to get up in the morning.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

Well, I don’t think there’s any need for people to focus on my career.