These words dropped into my childish mind as if you should accidentally drop a ring into a deep well. I did not think of them much at the time, but there came a day in my life when the ring was fished up out of the well, good as new.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

Forgiveness is not a feeling – it’s a decision we make because we want to do what’s right before God. It’s a quality decision that won’t be easy and it may take time to get through the process, depending on the severity of the offense.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

Great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.

I’ve always been a singer. I never really decided I was gonna be a singer. It just kind of – I just sung a lot.

Virtue she finds too painful an endeavour, content to dwell in decencies for ever.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.

One of the things I definitely think of as a driver of me is fear. And it’s fear of failure, fear of being overtaken.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

You lose your individuality a huge amount when you have no money, and I certainly had that experience.

On the outskirts of every agony sits some observant fellow who points.

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.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

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.

I let the American people down.

Because forgiveness is like this: a room can be dank because you have closed the windows, you’ve closed the curtains. But the sun is shining outside, and the air is fresh outside. In order to get that fresh air, you have to get up and open the window and draw the curtains apart.

I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate.

It’s true my father abused me and didn’t love and protect me the way he should have, and at times it seemed no one would ever help me and it would never end. But God always had a plan for my life, and He has redeemed me.

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

It is in our idleness, in our dreams, that the submerged truth sometimes comes to the top.

O love, if I regret the age when one savors you, it is not for the hour of pleasure, but for the one that follows it.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream.

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

We work to become, not to acquire.

You can either be a host to God, or a hostage to your ego. It’s your call.

No change of circumstances can repair a defect of character.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

I used to wonder if it was God’s plan that I should be alone for so much of my life. But I found peace. I found happiness within people and the world.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

We grow older, but we do not change. We become more sophisticated, but at bottom we continue to resemble our young selves, eager to listen to the next story and the next, and the next.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

He who would pass his declining years with honor and comfort, should, when young, consider that he may one day become old, and remember when he is old, that he has once been young.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I’ll say that. Wonder and terror.

It’s like, remember who you always were, where you came from, who your parents were, how they raised you. Because that authentic self is going to follow you all through life, so make sure that it’s solid so it’s something that you can hold on and be proud of for the rest of your life.

I knew I wanted to do something creative. I didn’t think I’d have the luxury of doing something like that, because I didn’t know anyone who had pursued anything they really adored, but I had dreams for singing or writing.

I have loved to cook since I was a child in my mother’s kitchen. If I don’t have time to cook, I’ll just read a cookbook.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

It’s very hard to find your own words – and you don’t actually exist until you have your own words.

In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself – limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

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.