There are many harsh lessons to be learned from the gambling experience, but the harshest one of all is the difference between having Fun and being Smart.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

As pessimistic as I am about the nature of human beings and our capacity for atrocity and malevolence and betrayal and laziness and inertia, and all those things, I think we can transcend all that and set things straight.

Anything you’re good at contributes to happiness.

Your energy, your spirit are important considerations. Feeling petty and frustrated can have reverberating consequences for your ability to think strategically and reach your goals.

There’s one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows me, and – I’m going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself – I think most respect me.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

It’s much more fun to play something you’re nothing like than what you are… It’s much easier to hide yourself in a character.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

If there are people you haven’t forgiven, you’re not going to really awaken. You have to let go.

I shouldn’t be near Vegas and have money in my pocket.

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

You can know or not know how a car runs and still enjoy riding in a car.

My reputation grows with every failure.

Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

Oh, God, I struggle with low self-esteem all the time! I think everyone does. I have so much wrong with me, it’s unbelievable!

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.

For most of us, wisdom is acquired in the thicket of experience and usually meets us somewhere along the way if we live long enough. But sooner is better than later.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

From the moment I open my eyes, I’m trying to free my body. I’m trying to get looser, more flexible, to gain control. Movement is medicine to me.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

There are definitely elements of experience and stuff that someone who’s my age wouldn’t have. But there are also things that I can do that other people wouldn’t necessarily be able to.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.

I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Mastery passes often for egotism.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

I write for myself things that I’ve gone through.

Transformation literally means going beyond your form.

I don’t want to be something that just comes and goes.

It’s fun to be hopelessly in love. It’s dangerous, but it’s fun.

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

I’m not a natural born performer.

What I love best in life is new starts.

I want to give people a taste of the Caribbean, and show them the fun side of me.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Nothing will work unless you do.

Education doesn’t change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

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.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

Rude people will now & then ask me why I think I know so much about Politics. I tell them it’s because I’m Smart… But that is a lie: The real reason is because I’m an incurable Gambling addict.

What’s wrong with being a boring kind of guy?

The way to develop decisiveness is to start right where you are, with the very next question you face.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.