To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

Somehow, we have come to the erroneous belief that we are all but flesh, blood, and bones, and that’s all. So we direct our values to material things.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

‚Your Erroneous Zones’ was the book that went over the top simply because I believed in it so much.

He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.

The more you practice, the better you get, the more freedom you have to create.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

We need every person on Earth to acknowledge that climate change is real and encourage each other and our leaders to address the challenge.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know – and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance.

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

Any man may be in good spirits and good temper when he’s well dressed. There ain’t much credit in that.

When you love and accept yourself, when you know who really cares about you, and when you learn from your mistakes, then you stop caring about what people who don’t know you think.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

The President’s post should not be politicised. Once a president is elected, he is above politics.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

An Englishman thinks he is moral when he is only uncomfortable.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.

I’m not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

I’ve learned never to say never.

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

When you write your first book aged 25 or so, you have 25 years of experience, albeit much of it juvenile experience. The second book comes after an extra year sitting in bookshops. Pretty soon, you begin to run on empty.

We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it.

Few people realize that luck is created.

I am not very good with relationships. With anyone. I can’t be locked up with anyone for too long.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

Be as you wish to seem.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

I know that I’m not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don’t know how not to.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge.

These are the soul’s changes. I don’t believe in ageing. I believe in forever altering one’s aspect to the sun. Hence my optimism.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

I think I should learn French and be a better cook – basic, really good life stuff.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

One of the key qualities a leader must possess is the ability to detach from the chaos, mayhem, and emotions in a situation and make good, clear decisions based on what is actually happening.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Leadership is absolutely vital if there are comparable countries which can affect the security of the world you live in. Between Lincoln and Roosevelt’s time, America was protected by huge oceans and, in practice, by the British navy. Today, it’s different, and the obsession of the Obama administration has been for retrenchment.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

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

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.