To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

I married my best friend that happens to be a girl.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

In a magazine, one can get – from cover to cover – 15 to 20 different ideas about life and how to live it.

Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

I just want people to be the best thems and live the happiest lives possible.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

You can start right where you stand and apply the habit of going the extra mile by rendering more service and better service than you are now being paid for.

You don’t choose your family. They are God’s gift to you, as you are to them.

It was patriotism, not communism, that inspired me.

There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man’s lack of faith in his true Self.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

While you’re saving your face, you’re losing your ass.

A man’s character is his fate.

The hell to be endured hereafter, of which theology tells, is no worse than the hell we make for ourselves in this world by habitually fashioned our characters in the wrong way.

If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.

Begin noticing and being careful about keeping your imagination free of thoughts that you do not wish to materialize. Instead, initiate a practice of filling your creative thoughts to overflow with ideas and wishes that you fully intend to manifest. Honor your imaginings regardless of others seeing them as crazy or impossible.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.

I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

The future is called ‚perhaps‘, which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.

I created myself. I have taught myself so much.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliche for a minute and say that great art comes from pain.

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

Confidence, as a teenager? Because I knew what I loved. I loved to read; I loved to listen to music; and I loved cats. Those three things. So, even though I was an only kid, I could be happy because I knew what I loved.

We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

Who shall measure the hat and violence of the poet’s heart when caught and tangled in a woman’s body?

Hatred is blind, as well as love.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

Nothing I can say or devise, and nothing anybody else can say or devise, is going to be perfect.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

As a kid, we would drive up and down 77 North – that’s our highway – there would be office buildings on the side of the highway and I’d be like, that’s what my house is going to look like when I get older. I’m going to start making my house look like this.

Sometimes I write about my own life. And sometimes I write about situations I see my friends going through. Sometimes I write about a scene I saw in a movie. I take inspiration from all different places.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

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

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

Let go of yesterday.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.