We’re constantly striving for success, fame and comfort when all we really need to be happy is someone or some thing to be enthusiastic about.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

I am just happy to be part of the Nike family.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

I could give a flying flip about doing promo because, no disrespect, nobody put me in the position that I’m in.

People want to act like they know celebrities. They want to see pictures. They want to know where you’re going. They want to hear you talk about your family.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

I can say I’d honestly rather be happy than have 30 to 40 songs that I’ve written about these thrilling, exciting, horrible, unhappy times.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

Ideas are the beginning points of all fortunes.

Know then this truth, enough for man to know virtue alone is happiness below.

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

If you truly get in touch with a piece of carrot, you get in touch with the soil, the rain, the sunshine. You get in touch with Mother Earth and eating in such a way, you feel in touch with true life, your roots, and that is meditation. If we chew every morsel of our food in that way we become grateful and when you are grateful, you are happy.

Human felicity is produced not as much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen as by little advantages that occur every day.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

I am happy and I’m single.

We find delight in the beauty and happiness of children that makes the heart too big for the body.

We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

I don’t call up the press and say, ‚Look at me!‘

Well done is better than well said.

My songs have always been frustrating themes, relationships that I’ve had. And now that I’m in love, I expect it to be really happy, or at least there won’t be half as much anger as there was.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

My measure of success is whether I’m fulfilling my mission.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.

And God help Bruce Springsteen when they decide he’s no longer God… They’ll turn on him, and I hope he survives it.

For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

I’ve arrived at the place if I’m not taking a career risk, I’m not happy. If I’m scared, then I know I’m being challenged.

There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

What is once well done is done forever.

The person who seeks all their applause from outside has their happiness in another’s keeping .

Fame may go by and – so long, I’ve had you.

The happiness of this life depends less on what befalls you than the way in which you take it.

Why love if losing hurts so much? I have no answers anymore; only the life I have lived. The pain now is part of the happiness then.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.

I got a signed document from Bullock’s saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock’s!

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.