To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

I don’t think I’m such an amazing person who needs to be written about.

Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.

I am just one human being.

The reason I became 297 pounds is because that was comfortable. What was very uncomfortable was running. What was very uncomfortable was being on a diet. What was very uncomfortable was trying to face things that I didn’t want to face. And I also realized, when I was really big, I had no growth. Why? Because I was living comfortable.

I had a period in my life where I decided that I would never be bored again and that, if I had any free time at all, I would make plans, and I would always be doing things. It actually was great for a year or so, but then I lost all of my friends.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

Now I realize that from ’72 through to about ’76, I was the ultimate rock star. I couldn’t have been more rock star.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

The reward of suffering is experience.

Take the complications, rules, shoulds, musts, have tos, and so on out of your life. By uncomplicating your life and removing the trivial pursuits that occupy so much of it, you open a channel for the genius within you to emerge.

Highly functioning self-actualized people simply never imagine what it is that they don’t wish to have as their reality.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

The moment you think you understand a great work of art, it’s dead for you.

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

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

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.

Someone told me something that stuck with me: ‚You have to envision your life, and then go backwards.‘ I’ve been living by that motto for a while, so I see where I need to be. Now I’m just backtracking and trying to get back up there.

When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

If you were to ask me what I want to do – I don’t want to be a celebrity, I want to make a difference.

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfill themselves.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing.

I am a part of everything that I have read.

Whatever that means, however you got on that mountain, why not try to climb it? And do it in your own way.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain.

I realized the other day that I’ve lived in New York longer than I’ve lived anywhere else. It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

We hunger to understand, so we invent myths about how we imagine the world is constructed – and they’re, of course, based upon what we know, which is ourselves and other animals. So we make up stories about how the world was hatched from a cosmic egg or created after the mating of cosmic deities or by some fiat of a powerful being.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.

We had hundreds of thousands of people all dedicated to doing the perfect job, and I think they did about as well as anyone could ever have expected.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

No matter what message you are about to deliver somewhere, whether it is holding out a hand of friendship, or making clear that you disapprove of something, is the fact that the person sitting across the table is a human being, so the goal is to always establish common ground.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

When I write about a 15-year old, I jump, I return to the days when I was that age. It’s like a time machine. I can remember everything. I can feel the wind. I can smell the air. Very actually. Very vividly.

Whatever the universal nature assigns to any man at any time is for the good of that man at that time.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to trust your team. It’s a lesson I’ve had to relearn quite a few times.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

If you haven’t forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others.

Our will is always for our own good, but we do not always see what that is.

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

Most of my young years were spent under the boots of the military.

To be social is to be forgiving.