There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

If you would take, you must first give, this is the beginning of intelligence.

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

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‚I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.‘

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

When I get down, I don’t waller around for long.

I wear a hat on stage so that people won’t be blinded by the reflection from my head. Also, if I don’t wear a hat, there’s no way that the hat can be at that level by itself on the stage.

I was so ashamed of who I was.

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

God made you a masterpiece – be blessed, secure, disciplined and equipped.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

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.

Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you’ve started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals. If you can’t get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

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.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

Death obsesses me, yes it does. I can’t really understand why it doesn’t obsess everyone – I think it does really, I’m just a little more out about it.

I don’t want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Passions are vices or virtues to their highest powers.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

Power is competence.

We are continually shaped by the forces of coincidence.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

If you are living out of a sense of obligation you are slave.

Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.

When it comes to everybody else’s thing and their lane and their timing, I’m never doing anything intentional to, like, come after somebody. That will always be my biggest mistake or anybody’s biggest mistake if that’s their intention.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

There’s a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

There are going to be things I’m not going to be great at, times when I make mistakes, 100%.

To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.

Real riches are the riches possessed inside.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Unless one is able to live fully in the present, the future is a hoax.

I’ve never been pregnant, so I just feel God didn’t mean for me to have kids so that everybody else’s children could be mine.