What most persons consider as virtue, after the age of 40 is simply a loss of energy.

The mouth obeys poorly when the heart murmurs.

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.

I approach love differently now that I know it’s hard for it to work out.

I had a lovers quarrel with the world.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs.

The self is hateful.

The stories are not autobiographical, but they’re personal in that way. I seem to know only the things that I’ve learned. Probably some things through observation, but what I feel I know surely is personal.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

My life is my message.

I’m not talent. Not considered ‚talent‘ by Lifetime. I’d like to say I’m their savior, but that would be cocky.

My future is righteousness.

If you desire many things, many things will seem few.

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

I used to get the feeling, and sometimes I still get it, that sometimes I was fooling somebody; I don’t know who or what, maybe myself.

I’ve been careful in love. I’ve been careless in love. And I’ve had adventures I wouldn’t trade for anything.

Me not finishing school – in my head, I still have this insecurity when I’m talking to someone educated.

The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.

The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

I’m half living my life between reality and fantasy at all times.

Use what language you will, you can never say anything but what you are.

Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

There is a tendency for things to right themselves.

Life is about growing and improving and getting better.

You’re not going to say anything about me that I’m not going to say about myself. There’s so many things that I think about myself; if someone really wanted to get at me, they could say this and this and this. So I’m going to say it before they can. It’s the best policy for me.

I try to look on all the great things God’s done, and not focus on the negative. It’s a perspective.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

Life would pall if it were all sugar; salt is bitter if taken by itself; but when tasted as part of the dish, it savours the meat. Difficulties are the salt of life.

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

Applause is a receipt, not a bill.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I think for my bones and my size, I better stay with my 60 kilo.

It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.

Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‚Ego‘.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

When I’m 40 and nobody wants to see me in a sparkly dress anymore, I’ll be like: ‚Cool, I’ll just go in the studio and write songs for kids.‘

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.

In war, when a commander becomes so bereft of reason and perspective that he fails to understand the dependence of arms on Divine guidance, he no longer deserves victory.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

If you have the chance to be exposed to a loving, understanding environment where the seed of compassion, loving kindness, can be watered every day, then you become a more loving person.

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

Don’t grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.

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.

Someone has to die in order that the rest of us should value life more.

Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one’s own character to himself.

Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.

Narrow your life down to this moment. Your life situation may be full of problems – most life situations are – but find out if you have a problem at this moment. Do you have a problem now?

I’m not a natural performer or exhibitionist. When I was younger, I hated the focus, and it made me feel strange.

If it’s going to come out eventually, better have it come out immediately.