True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

I never said I was the best in anything. I never said I’m an icon. The world decides all of that.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

Rather be dead than cool.

You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It’s very real. It’s very strong.

I can’t say this enough – the food that you put into your bodies can actually help you get better grades. And it can also affect your performance in sports and other activities too. You see, when you give your body the best possible fuel, you have more energy, you’re stronger, you think more quickly.

Truth is so rare that it is delightful to tell it.

Vulnerability is not weakness. And that myth is profoundly dangerous.

I didn’t want to be a writer, but I became one. And now I have many readers, in many countries. I think that’s a miracle. So I think I have to be humble regarding this ability. I’m proud of it and I enjoy it, and it is strange to say it this way, but I respect it.

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.

A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing occasionally to stand alone.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

See, behind all my tough, rough exterior is basically a marshmallow, maybe a pussycat. But not a wimp!

Accept everything about yourself – I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and the end – no apologies, no regrets.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Heaven gives us hope and makes our present burdens easier to bear.

Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

I set records that will never be equaled. In fact, I hope 90% of them don’t even get printed.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

Integrity means that you are the same in public as you are in private.

I’m not into albums that are meant to sound perfect.

To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.

It is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.

I know why we’re strong. I know why we have held together; I know why we are united: it’s because there’s always been a growing middle class.

Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel.

I’ve just tried to grow up in the most natural and gradual process that I possibly can and make choices I feel are right for me and my fans.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.

Even philosophers will praise war as ennobling mankind, forgetting the Greek who said: ‚War is bad in that it begets more evil than it kills.‘

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

The best author will be the one who is ashamed to become a writer.

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

I have never used Auto-Tune in a live television performance, and I have never used Auto-Tune in any of my concerts. That is a promise.

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

I don’t believe in doing things to manufacture my body to appeal to what I think people might like.

I’ve definitely seen bands before they made money kind of change their thing on the next tour, and I prefer it when it’s a little more raw.

I don’t like it when people who are young act like they’re 40. That’s taking too much on. Putting up a shield and trying to act like you’re so mature or whatever – I don’t try to act mature. Some people might say I’m mature for my age, but it’s not something I’m trying to do, you know? I’m just me.

I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by my friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance.

I didn’t come to Hollywood. Hollywood came to me. A lot of people wish they could say the things I say. Everyone out here is so phony, it’s sickening.

My parents were the same in the pulpit as they were at home. I think that’s where a lot of preachers‘ kids get off base sometimes. Because they don’t see the same things at both places.

I know I do not exaggerate, unconsciously and unintentionally, the scantiness of my resources and the difficulty of my life… I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a vagabond.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you.

It could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.