When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet in his private heart no man much respects himself.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

I think everybody’s trying to get to a place in themselves where they conquer what they was afraid of; they achieve some of their life goals, kept their word about what they were trying to do.

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Honestly, I could care less about other people’s opinions about me.

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

Bad men are full of repentance.

An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.

Humble people ask for help.

Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

It sometimes makes people feel better about themselves, you know, to put other people down, or make fun of them, or maybe make mockery of their work and that doesn’t make me feel good at all.

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

Everybody wants to be me. What can I say?

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.

No man is hurt but by himself.

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

If we keep doing what we’re doing, we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.

The more successful I become, the more I need a man.

I never expected to be anybody important.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

I could not do what I do, and teach a class, and never miss a deadline, never be late for anything if I was a lush, OK? I would really love to read a piece that said, ‚He is not a lush.‘ That would be fabulous, it would be a first, I could show it to people and say, ‚Look!‘

I wasn’t born a natural entrepreneur. I had to be trained.

When I was about thirteen, the library was going to get ‚Calculus for the Practical Man.‘ By this time I knew, from reading the encyclopedia, that calculus was an important and interesting subject, and I ought to learn it.

Weak character will neutralize all of the other possible good qualities a person might possess.

Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?

‚Worry‘ is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

There may sometimes be ungenerous attempts to keep a young man down; and they will succeed, too, if he allows his mind to be diverted from its true channel to brood over the attempted injury.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

I’m not a supermodel. That’s not what I do. What I do is music. I want my fans to feel the way I do, to know what they have to offer is just as important, more important, than what’s happening on the outside.

If we accept being talked to any kind of a way, then we are telling ourselves we are not quite worth the best. And if we have the effrontery to talk to anybody with less than courtesy, we tell ourselves and the world we are not very intelligent.

I have goals.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.