The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Places I’ve lived since then had to have some kind of uniqueness and character about them. And logically Key West, and then Down Island. So, all of that stuff sort of had it’s roots in New Orleans and went crazy.

I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles.

Most people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist. They are wrong: it is character.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Students achieving Oneness will move on to Twoness.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

I’m fat, but I’m thin inside… there’s a thin man inside every fat man.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

‚Victory Lap,‘ even the title. It’s the accumulation of trial and error; that’s what I represent; trial and error.

Self-actualized people are independent of the good opinion of others.

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning.

I always had music growing up, but music was also like a journal. It was like my personal diary or personal journal. A lot of the things I couldn’t express to an individual, I would express them in my music.

It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take ten forward.

I don’t have a problem with ageing – in fact, I embrace that aspect of it. And am able to and obviously am going to be able to quite easily… it doesn’t faze me at all.

You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

It is my own firm belief that the strength of the soul grows in proportion as you subdue the flesh.

When I was 5, some financial things happened, and I moved seven times in a year. We moved from apartment to apartment, sometimes living with friends. My mom would always say, ‚Don’t get comfortable, because we may not be here long.‘

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

There will always be something to ruin our lives, it all depends on what or which finds us first. We are always ripe and ready to be taken.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

I think that people just have this core desire to express who they are. And I think that’s always existed.

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.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material force – that thoughts rule the world.

I had wanted a tape recorder since I was tiny. I thought it was a magic thing. I never got one until just before I went to art school.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

Lord Jesus, we come just as we are; this is how we came at first, and this is how we come still, with all our failures, with all our transgressions, with all and everything that is what it ought not to be, we come to Thee.

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

It is only to the individual that a soul is given.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

I know I will never be happy, but I know I can be gay!

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

When things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that’s going to come from it.

Don’t wait to be successful at some future point. Have a successful relationship with the present moment and be fully present in whatever you are doing. That is success.

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

I don’t know what drives me to succeed.

I try to be the same person I was yesterday.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee, and I’ll forgive Thy great big joke on me.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

You’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

My reputation grows with every failure.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Even with my divorce and with everything, I don’t need money.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

God has entrusted me with myself.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

Although I don’t have a prescription for what others should do, I know I have been very fortunate and feel a responsibility to give back to society in a very significant way.