The spirit is there in every boy; it has to be discovered and brought to light.

Questioning my spiritual life has always been germane to what I was writing. Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‚Well, I’m almost an atheist. Give me a couple of months.‘

Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God.

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

Energy begets energy.

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.

For me to talk with Obama and the conversation I had with him, I was letting him know that me and my fans have a special connection, and it’s love, and I believe that love is the answer.

My stories run up and bite me on the leg – I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

The superior man thinks always of virtue; the common man thinks of comfort.

The gospel to me is simply irresistible.

Create a ladder of values and priorities in your life, reminding yourself of what really matters to you.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

Those who cannot think or take responsibility for themselves need, and clamor for, a leader.

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

You can have religion with spirituality. You can also have religion without spirituality.

I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing.

I don’t really know that much about love, it turns out.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

The truth is something that burns. It burns off dead wood. And people don’t like having the dead wood burnt off, often because they’re 95 percent dead wood.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it’s going to happen.

The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter – for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

I can express myself.

I’m intimidated by the fear of being average.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

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

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.

My life is my argument.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

People often speak of God being even-handed. God is not even-handed. God is biased, in favor of the weak, of the despised.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

You can be rich in spirit, kindness, love and all those things that you can’t put a dollar sign on.

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.

Control your own destiny! Control your own destiny!

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

The bravest person I’ve ever met was a young boy going through massive amounts of treatment for a very rare, complex and unpleasant disease. I last saw him at a Discworld convention, where he chose to take part in a game as an assassin. He died not long afterwards, and I wish I had his fortitude and sense of style.

He who knows best knows how little he knows.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

At 13 years old, I realized I could start my own band. I could write my own song, I could record my own record. I could start my own label. I could release my own record. I could book my own shows. I could write and publish my own fanzine. I could silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself.