There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

I’m nobody, who are you?

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

In search of my mother’s garden, I found my own.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

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

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

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.

No matter how full a reservoir of maxims one may possess, and no matter how good one’s sentiments may be, if one has not taken advantage of every concrete opportunity to act, one’s character may remain entirely unaffected for the better.

What I love best in life is new starts.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

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

I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.

It is a great shock at the age of five or six to find that in a world of Gary Coopers you are the Indian.

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

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

Experience is the teacher of all things.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

I can imagine it’s hard to make a relationship last. I wouldn’t know.

Morality is not the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

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

Our passions are like convulsion fits, which, though they make us stronger for a time, leave us the weaker ever after.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

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.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

To be conscious means not simply to be, but to be reported, known, to have awareness of one’s being added to that being.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

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

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

Most of us believe, or should believe, that every child can learn, given the opportunity, but try substitute teaching just once and you will see firsthand the socioeconomic issues that distract our kids from taking advantage of that opportunity.

In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.

Pick the day. Enjoy it – to the hilt. The day as it comes. People as they come… The past, I think, has helped me appreciate the present – and I don’t want to spoil any of it by fretting about the future.

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching.

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student.

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.

Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

I’d like to be known for more than being the guy in the big suit.

Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.