Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

Sports are basically our way of feeling sorry for ourselves. Most men can’t become athletes. We’re watching guys who actually made it. We see them dunking and making touchdowns. Then we think about ourselves when we were younger.

The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

I’m just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I’m inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn’t be anything for us to do.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

For me, the essence of the great American Dream is spiritual. I believe that our Constitution is inspired and that it is based on principles that are timeless and universal. This is the reason why 95% of all written constitutions throughout the world are modeled after our Constitution.

I got a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across, and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

It’s tough to go to sleep at night, and I wake up after five hours because I feel like I’m wasting time. I just sit up at night and think about what I can do next.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation.

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

I think it’s important as an artist to never forget where you’re from.

See, when you drive home today, you’ve got a big windshield on the front of your car. And you’ve got a little bitty rearview mirror. And the reason the windshield is so large and the rearview mirror is so small is because what’s happened in your past is not near as important as what’s in your future.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

Never confuse motion with action.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

I am a walking piece of art every day, with my dreams and my ambitions forward at all times in an effort to inspire my fans to lead their life in that way.

Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

Our moments of inspiration are not lost though we have no particular poem to show for them; for those experiences have left an indelible impression, and we are ever and anon reminded of them.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.

I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness.

If you write in the same way over and over again, like, in the same place with the same techniques and with the same people, you’re sort of writing the same song over and over again.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

Faith Hill is a big role model.

I love the name of honor, more than I fear death.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.

I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go – that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.

I’m very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

I have not worked out my poems with a careful will, falling rather on haphazard and blind formulation of wordage, a more flowing concept, in a hope for a more new and lively path. I do personalize at times, but this only for the grace and elan of the dance.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

Make measurable progress in reasonable time.