We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

Sacrifice, discipline and prayer are essential. We gain strength through God’s word. We receive grace from the sacrament. And when we fumble due to sin – and it’s gonna happen – confession puts us back on the field.

The roots of the problems we face in the world, in our national life, and in our family and personal lives are spiritual.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

I made bad decisions. I’m not denying that I made bad decisions.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

Always remember that your calmness under fire is your best defense in any argument or discussion.

Had I been a great athlete, I’m not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes.

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.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that’s why we came to America.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

My mum passing away wasn’t funny, but that funeral and what I went through, the things that happened, looking back at it, there were funny moments. You have to be strong enough to look back at it, to sit and assess the situation.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.

Women must tell men always that they are the strong ones. They are the big, the strong, the wonderful. In truth, women are the strong ones. It is just my opinion, I am not a professor.

Some people would like me to be round again.

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

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

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

One must verify or expel his doubts, and convert them into the certainty of Yes or NO.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

None of the records I make are ever a deliberate construction – they’re always an expression of who I am at the time and where I am in my life.

I know this sounds strange, but as a kid, I was really shy. Painfully shy. The turning point was freshman year, when I was the biggest geek alive. No one, I mean no one, even talked to me.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

Arthur Miller wouldn’t have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.

For a person who grew up in the ’30s and ’40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, ‚Here I am, read me.‘ Over time I have learned I am at my best around books.

What you are comes to you.

I hope not to define myself by suffering.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

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.

I think there are a number of things that you can do to encourage your kids‘ dreams, but I do believe in speaking by experience of having a lot of help along the way, stumbling in the past. We’ve all stumbled, and we certainly all deserve to get up and walk again.

My reputation grows with every failure.

Sometimes if you got a problem deep rooted in your life, it takes a little bit of time to overcome it in that area.

If you’re going to spend two years of your life on something, it has to matter to you; you have to be passionate about it.

I got teased my entire school life. What they were picking on I don’t even understand.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

The things that transfixed you as a child, that you found most exciting was not a passing fancy, but a message about what you’re supposed to do.

I don’t think I’m an unlucky person.

There are phases in life which surface at times, and it makes you understand that despite you working hard, everything what you are doing is probably not enough. That’s when you need to look around, and beyond.

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

I tended to place my wife under a pedestal.

A child wants things to be a certain way. When you get to be an adult, you just understand that some people are good, some are not, and you can’t be naive.

Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

I don’t want followers.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop.

Even though I was very shy, I found I could get onstage if I had a new identity.

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

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 lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

We begin to see, therefore, the importance of selecting our environment with the greatest of care, because environment is the mental feeding ground out of which the food that goes into our minds is extracted.

I just really believe people have to get hungry. I think maybe what we need to do, instead of trying to stuff our beliefs down people’s throats, is just pray for them to really be hungry and to see their neediness.

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

We construct a narrative for ourselves, and that’s the thread that we follow from one day to the next. People who disintegrate as personalities are the ones who lose that thread.

In the child, consciousness rises out of the depths of unconscious psychic life, at first like separate islands, which gradually unite to form a ‚continent,‘ a continuous landmass of consciousness. Progressive mental development means, in effect, extension of consciousness.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘