There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‚I’m with you kid. Let’s go.‘

I dwell in possibility.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

We will have to leave this planet, and we’re going to leave it, and it’s going to make this planet better.

I’m here to spread a message of hope. Follow your heart. Don’t follow what you’ve been told you’re supposed to do.

We are all of us stars, and we deserve to twinkle.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Do your job. Do it the best you can. Do it right, because somebody, sometimes your best friend, is waiting for you to screw up so she can take your place.

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were – to the very last minute – a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

People always tell you, ‚Be humble. Be humble.‘ When was the last time someone told you to be amazing? Be great! Be great! Be awesome! Be awesome!

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.

Before all else, be armed.

If you look at anyone who has achieved great success and wealth, people like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or Lance Armstrong, they have all focused intensely in order to win.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.

I hope that what you take away from my album is not just the music – which I did want to be fun, and I did want it to be about individuality, but please also take away from it that there’s no dream that’s too big.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

I only want my work to make people happy.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

We’re going to have to work. We’re going to have to play well. Nothing will be given to us.

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort – I think it keeps you going.

The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Mickey Mouse popped out of my mind onto a drawing pad 20 years ago on a train ride from Manhattan to Hollywood at a time when business fortunes of my brother Roy and myself were at lowest ebb and disaster seemed right around the corner.

Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.

A good thing to remember is somebody’s got it a lot worse than we do.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

While we may lose heart, we never have to lose hope.

Pain and foolishness lead to great bliss and complete knowledge, for Eternal Wisdom created nothing under the sun in vain.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

I always try to put a seed of hope into people’s hearts. I’m not there to teach them doctrine necessarily, but to let them know that God is a good God, and has a plan for their lives. Hopefully, that will restore their faith, or draw them into faith.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

I’m not very ambitious at all.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

We need to know what the resources of the moon are. We have great evidence now because of different kinds of radar and spectroscopic analysis that people have been able to do. But we really do need to go visit there, and we can do that with a robot craft without any problem.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny’s Child put out ‚Independent Women,‘ and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Imagination decides everything.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.