personal growth quotes

People don’t usually compliment your character.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

I don’t dislike any of my exes. If I took time to form a relationship, it’s gonna hurt when we move on, but are you puttin‘ White-Out over all that beautiful time together? That was real time in your life. It’s connected to where you are today.

I’m not happy all the time, and I wouldn’t want to be because that would make me a shallow person. But I do try to find the good in everybody.

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.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

Peace is one of the most precious gifts God has promised His children. I know, because for many years my life was not peaceful, and I was miserable.

The longer I live, the more I feel that true repose consists in ‚renouncing‘ one’s own self, by which I mean making up one’s mind to admit that there is no importance whatever in being ‚happy‘ or ‚unhappy‘ in the usual meaning of the words.

A game is like a mirror that allows you to look at yourself.

People are looking for something a little more stable; people are feeling like they need to get closer to God.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

The truth is, somebody is always talking about you, so you have to let it go… if it’s not a part of your God-given destiny.

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

I became a people-watcher when I lost all my friends when I was 12.

Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

I love getting out of my comfort zone.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

I can’t tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I’ve got a good bead on myself.

I spent most of the early years of my walk with God focused on what was wrong with me. Most of us probably do that, hoping to change ourselves.

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

Don’t feel sorry for me.

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

He who knows himself is enlightened.

Every single one of us has a few months here or there that feel like dark months.

Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my travels were very useful to me.

Yeah, I like to keep myself interested – I’ll kind of throw myself into some area that I don’t completely know or understand, that I’m not adept at, so I’m forced to swim in order to stay afloat. There’s a good feeling that comes from that.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you’re the funniest person you’ve ever heard of.

I don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.

Whatever is making you so angry, it’s time for you to give it to God and get over it.

I have surrounded myself with very smart people.

Everything is an open book. I don’t speak on other people’s hardship, but if it happened in my life or something that has been an experience on my particular journey, I’m going to talk about it. That’s what my fan base appreciates the most. I’m universal. You can relate to the things I say or that I go through.

I like to write about love and love lost because I feel like there are so many different subcategories of emotions that you can possibly delve into.

I still consider myself a little, fat kid from Hawaii.

So many people live with anger and unforgiveness, and many of them are Christians.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‚always do what you are afraid to do.‘

I’m very secure about my talents and about who I am.

I still have mixed feelings about what growing up is – this thing that happens to everyone, so I’ve heard.

If we don’t plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And you don’t have to be, you know, a brilliant biochemist and you don’t have to have an IQ of 150. Just common sense tells you to be kind, ninny, fool. Be kind.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

I like pushing boundaries.

The devil is a peace stealer, and he works hard to set us up to get upset. But we can learn how to change our approach so we don’t live upset all of the time. And Jesus gives us the best example to follow.

People respond when you tell them there is a great future in front of you, you can leave your past behind.

I’m perpetually lonely.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

Military school was great and especially great for leadership and then I spent two years in Vietnam.

As a young kid, I really wanted to be rich.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

I think I have to trust that you end up with the person you’re supposed to end up with, and that everything in between is there to teach you stuff.

Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there’s gonna come a time that you’re gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.

I am getting to the point where the only love worth being in is the love worth singing about.