We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

I don’t go off and sit down and try to write material, because then it’s contrived and forced. I just live my life, and I see things in a word or a situation or a concept, and it will create a joke for me.

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.

As a songwriter, you respect and appreciate the writings of other people, and I often get asked, are there songs out there I wish I’d written? Yes. There’s many of them!

I am fearful, or suspicious, of generalizations… They cannot guide me reliably in making decisions about particular individuals.

There’s a victory, and defeat; the first and best of victories, the lowest and worst of defeats which each man gains or sustains at the hands not of another, but of himself.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

We are in a wrong state of mind if we are not in a thankful state of mind.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

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.

I love making music. That’s what I love to do. So I don’t feel like there’s any need to take a break unless I want to.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.

The secret to the movie business, or any business, is to get a good education in a subject besides film – whether it’s history, psychology, economics, or architecture – so you have something to make a movie about. All the skill in the world isn’t going to help you unless you have something to say.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

We are each made for goodness, love and compassion. Our lives are transformed as much as the world is when we live with these truths.

Sometimes I think that there’s a fine line between impressionistic and messy.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

You make a movie, and if somebody reads something into it, then great, more power to him.

Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

I am my own sanctuary and I can be reborn as many times as I choose throughout my life.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

I have no models in Japanese literature. I created my own style, my own way.

There is no real limit to how much better a person who really commits to getting better can get. Every manager has the potential to become an excellent manager for the rest of his or her career.

Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

Before I lost my voice, it was slurred, so only those close to me could understand, but with the computer voice, I found I could give popular lectures. I enjoy communicating science. It is important that the public understands basic science, if they are not to leave vital decisions to others.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

I learned a long time ago how to be coachable.

Get mad, then get over it.

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely occupied by the images of as many objects as are in front of it.

At some point in time, you definitely have to go drama. Not to say that you’re going drama just because everybody else does it. You do it to challenge yourself. You do it because, naturally, in the profession of acting, you want to show growth. You want to say that you take the craft seriously.

The strongest principle of growth lies in the human choice.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

It’s all make believe, isn’t it?

For me, it’s enough that I have the first and last word.

Never was it given to mortal man – To lie so boldly as we women can.

Those who cry out that the government should ‚do something‘ never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing.

I want to be very clear: I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

If you want to have sustained joy, you have to not only make sure that you think right, but you also have to make decisions now that are going to guarantee some joy in the future.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

A work of art that contains theories is like an object on which the price tag has been left.

Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation. But I’m working on the foundation.

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.