When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

My family kinda hit the skids. We were experiencing poverty at that point. We all got a job, where the whole family had to work as security guards and janitors. And I just got angry.

I was raised by strong women, and that DNA is in my daughter and wife.

How can one preach goodness and love to men without at the same time offering them an interpretation of the World that justifies this goodness and this love?

A word after a word after a word is power.

I never thought I’d have children; I never thought I’d be in love, I never thought I’d meet the right person. Having come from a broken home – you kind of accept that certain things feel like a fairy tale, and you just don’t look for them.

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.

I have rules for a lot of areas of my life. Love is not going to be one of them.

When you wash your hands, when you make a cup of coffee, when you’re waiting for the elevator – instead of indulging in thinking, these are all opportunities for being there as a still, alert presence.

Getting stress out of your life takes more than prayer alone. You must take action to make changes and stop doing whatever is causing the stress. You can learn to calm down in the way you handle things.

My father had died, and very swiftly, too, of cancer of the esophagus. He was 79. I am 61. In whatever kind of a ‚race‘ life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist.

If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Historically, the family has played the primary role in educating children for life, with the school providing supplemental scaffolding to the family.

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

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be a genius. You don’t have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

My enthusiasm seems to cause my world to endlessly offer me cooperative, co-creating experiences. I’m willing and I’m eager, and not just about my writing – I feel the same way about staying in shape, enjoying my family, giving a lecture, or whatever it may be.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

Regarding marriage, it – somehow, it didn’t happen. One fellow in such a big family not getting married is not an issue.

When we give ourselves the chance to let go of all our tension, the body’s natural capacity to heal itself can begin to work.

A person once asked me, in a provocative manner, if I approved of homosexuality. I replied with another question: ‚Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?‘ We must always consider the person.

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

Yeah we all shine on, like the moon, and the stars, and the sun.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

Of course, I do everything for money.

My mom cleaned toilets for a long time, and she’d seen a lot of terrible things, but she was still the strength of our family. And there are women like that all across the country – all around the world – who show that type of fortitude.

The expression a woman wears on her face is far more important than the clothes she wears on her back.

The fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off – we do not have to stand for this.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Marriage is an adventure, like going to war.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

There’s no point in starting a business unless you’re going to make a dramatic difference to other people’s lives. So if you’ve got an idea that’s gonna make a big difference to other people’s lives, then just get on and do it.

I write for the same reason I breathe – because if I didn’t, I would die.

My son has died of AIDS.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds, they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material.

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

This industry has been really good to me. It’s been a great life. I’m not through yet. I’m ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.

The truth is, anyone can start projects. The world is full of just-started projects that looked great at the time but were never completed.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.