This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

Where liberty is, there is my country.

Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

Sometimes I think it would be easier to avoid old age, to die young, but then you’d never complete your life, would you? You’d never wholly know you.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Even the best teams can fail. Celebrities can fade. There is only One in whom your faith is always safe, and that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you need to let your faith show!

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

You must not fight too often with one enemy, or you will teach him all your art of war.

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

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

Who is the wise man? He who sees what’s going to be born.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

One science only will one genius fit; so vast is art, so narrow human wit.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

Make a habit of two things: to help; or at least to do no harm.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Life is like a wheel. Sooner or later, it always come around to where you started again.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‚within the limits of the law‘ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

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.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

The intense happiness of our union is derived in a high degree from the perfect freedom with which we each follow and declare our own impressions.

The virtue of justice consists in moderation, as regulated by wisdom.

I decided, very early on, just to accept life unconditionally; I never expected it to do anything special for me, yet I seemed to accomplish far more than I had ever hoped. Most of the time it just happened to me without my ever seeking it.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

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

I love getting out of my comfort zone.

Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

It’s pretty intense writing about my own life, my own struggles.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Once I knew only darkness and stillness… my life was without past or future… but a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.

Find people who will make you better.