The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‚our own life‘ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‚our own life‘ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

I love food.

The older I get, the more important the eternal becomes to me personally.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl.

We must all suffer one of two things: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret or disappointment.

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

I’ve always wanted to make a career in the arts, and I think that my only hope at doing that is to make it more about the work.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

My dad used to have an expression – ‚It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.‘

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.

I spent most of the early years of my walk with God focused on what was wrong with me. Most of us probably do that, hoping to change ourselves.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

Bottom line is, I didn’t return to Apple to make a fortune. I’ve been very lucky in my life and already have one. When I was 25, my net worth was $100 million or so. I decided then that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my life. There’s no way you could ever spend it all, and I don’t view wealth as something that validates my intelligence.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

If selfishness is the key to being miserable, then selflessness must be the key to being happy!

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

I resigned from the Marine Corps and flying in 1974, even though I loved them both. I quit because I no longer wanted to fight for peace. Instead, I believe we can build a more sustainable peace by working for prosperity.

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.

So many people think of me as a character on TV, but first and foremost, my passion is teaching dance and creating employable, working dancers.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

There wasn’t much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

What I cry out for, like every being, with my whole life and all my earthly passion, is something very different from an equal to cherish: it is a God to adore.

I don’t live in the past at all; I’m always wanting to do something new. I make a point of constantly trying to forget and get things out of my mind.

I love playing ego and insecurity combined.

The human race is a race of cowards; and I am not only marching in that procession but carrying a banner.

I’ve always been fascinated by everything with wings.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

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

Many people mistake our work for our vocation. Our vocation is the love of Jesus.

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

I was willing to accept what I couldn’t change.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Reversing your treatment of the man you have wronged is better than asking his forgiveness.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

Peace is one of the most precious gifts God has promised His children. I know, because for many years my life was not peaceful, and I was miserable.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.