When you look at the light bulb above you, you remember Thomas Alva Edison. When the telephone bell rings, you remember Alexander Graham Bell. Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. When you see the blue sky, you think of Sir C.V. Raman.

History should be written as philosophy.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

Just as our eyes need light in order to see, our minds need ideas in order to conceive.

The fastest manned vehicle in history was Apollo 10. It reached 25,000 mph.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

It has so happened in all ages of the world that some have labored, and others have, without labor, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits.

I want people to draw strength from me.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

If atomic bombs are to be added as new weapons to the arsenals of a warring world, or to the arsenals of nations preparing for war, then the time will come when mankind will curse the names of Los Alamos and of Hiroshima.

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

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

I really want a movie made on Sachin Tendulkar’s life. That is something I’m looking forward to. There will be so much emotion to that movie.

God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

Music is really driving my whole life.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

You just don’t wake up one day and decide that you need to write songs.

The solutions to our problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.

The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.

I don’t have space to enter into the examples or the history of this, so I’m left with having to make the bold statement that culture is extinct.

Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question.

You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.

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.‘

You can draw inspiration from anything. If you’re a good storyteller, you can take a dirty look somebody gives you, or if a guy you used to have flirtations with starts dating a new girl, or somebody you’re casually talking to says something that makes you so mad – you can create an entire scenario around that.

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant’s revolving door.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

People ask me where I got my singing style. I didn’t copy my style from anybody.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Society therefore is as ancient as the world.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said ‚Let us pray.‘ We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

Jewelry and pins have been worn throughout history as symbols of power, sending messages. Interestingly enough, it was mostly men who wore the jewelry in various times, and obviously crowns were part of signals that were being sent throughout history by people of rank.

From the heights of these pyramids, forty centuries look down on us.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.

The most talented do not always end up as celebrities, and those with less talent often do. Upsets are written into our history and occur around us every day.

Everybody has a little bit of Watergate in him.

Malcolm X was the first political person in this country that I really identified with. If he had lived and not been purged, I probably would have joined the Muslims.

All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea.

Do not think of your faults, still less of other’s faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

There are plenty of dead scientists I admire, but I can’t think of any living ones. This is probably because it is only in retrospect that one can see who made the important contributions.

Some mischievous people always there. Last several thousand years, always there. In future, also.

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

I’ve got nothing against records – I’ve spent my life making them – but they are a kind of historical blip.