When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

I can handle pain.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.

When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, ‚Why god? Why me?‘ and the thundering voice of God answered, ‚There’s just something about you that pisses me off.‘

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Seeing much, suffering much, and studying much, are the three pillars of learning.

I knew I wasn’t going to be a rocket scientist – let’s not be fools – but I wasn’t going to be a bum.

I will praise any man that will praise me.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

I’ve discovered that when we take time to renew our minds with God’s Word, we learn how to think like God thinks, say what God says, and act like He wants us to act.

The hardest thing for – not only an artist but for anybody to do is look themselves in the mirror and acknowledge, you know, their own flaws and fears and imperfections and put them out there in the open for people to relate to it.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

I always had faith in my creative capacity.

Any man is liable to err, only a fool persists in error.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

Vulnerability is basically uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

When things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that’s going to come from it.

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

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

I never really had the classic struggle. I had faith.

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

A jug fills drop by drop.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

We do not know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are – that is the fact.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

There are a lot of people who don’t know me and what I am all about.

You don’t want to pigeonhole yourself.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

Black or white good parts are hard to come by. A good actor with a good opportunity has a shot; without the opportunity it doesn’t matter how good you are.

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

If you’re trying too hard to be the girl next door, you’re not going to be.

It no longer bothers me that I may be constantly searching for father figures; by this time, I have found several and dearly enjoyed knowing them all.

At one time in my life, from the time I was seven until I was about 13, I didn’t speak. I only spoke to my brother. The reason I didn’t speak: I had been molested, and I told the name of the molester to my brother who told it to the family.

Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

I hold that while man exists, it is his duty to improve not only his own condition, but to assist in ameliorating mankind.

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

While musical experts of the world focus on what choir members can do, I would like to focus on what choir members can be.

The art of being a slave is to rule one’s master.

If our condition were truly happy, we would not seek diversion from it in order to make ourselves happy.

You simply have to accept that your demons are a part of you.

There is no real limit to how much better a person who really commits to getting better can get. Every manager has the potential to become an excellent manager for the rest of his or her career.

You have within you right now, everything you need to deal with whatever the world can throw at you.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.