Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune.

One thing about me is I try to be honest.

I think I am smart unless I am really, really in love, and then I am ridiculously stupid.

The truth doesn’t hurt unless it ought to.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

Today I love myself as I love my god: who could charge me with a sin today? I know only sins against my god; but who knows my god?

A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Find out who you are. And do it on purpose.

We human beings are strange creatures and still reserve the right to think for ourselves.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

Why should it be essential to love rarely in order to love much?

We are all at times unconscious prophets.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

Had I been a great athlete, I’m not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

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.

Only God can look at somebody’s heart.

All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker.

Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

Intense feeling too often obscures the truth.

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

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

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

Men often take their imagination for their heart; and they believe they are converted as soon as they think of being converted.

If human beings were shown what they’re really like, they’d either kill one another as vermin, or hang themselves.

My music seems to have a bigger mission than I have, which is very soothing but also very strange because people see more in me than I see, which can be terrifying.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

It’s dangerous to read the Internet about yourself when you’re me. Or when you’re anyone in the public eye.

Time is compressed like the fist I close on my knee… I hold inside it the clues and solutions and the power for what I must do now.

I am a good listener. I think that came from my schooling.

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.

I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.

The men and women of Afghanistan are building a nation that is free, and proud, and fighting terror – and America is honored to be their friend.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.

You might not have the things you want, but if you check carefully, you got all you need.

The man who is dissatisfied with himself, what can he do?

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.

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

I feel you’re in charge of your own situation.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don’t think anyone in my family would really feel I’d done them an injustice by saying that. We didn’t see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home.

There is such a thing as old emotional pain living inside you. It is an accumulation of painful life experience that was not fully faced and accepted in the moment it arose. It leaves behind an energy form of emotional pain.

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride.

I’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.

Let us be absolutely clear about one thing: we must not confuse humility with false modesty or servility.

My purpose is to help people look at themselves and begin to shift their concepts. Remember, we are not our country, our race, or religion. We are eternal spirits. Seeing ourselves as spiritual beings without label is a way to transform the world and reach a sacred place for all of humanity.

I hear my friends and my mom tell me I’m special, but honestly, I still don’t get it.

Better to die ten thousand deaths than wound my honor.

I have all the emotions that everyone has; it just appears that I don’t.