When you put on a uniform, there are certain inhibitions that you accept.

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.

I do know this: God does answer your prayers, but it’s not always in the way you expect. God knows what’s best for us, though, so there’s no need to worry when things don’t go how we originally wanted them to go.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

The only thing I know is I ain’t changing my brand. I know what I believe. I’m confident in what I know. And I’m gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don’t like it, I understand.

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.

We are second-hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences, and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves: nothing original, pristine, clear.

Millions of people die every day. Everyone’s got to go sometime.

I don’t really focus on these things – on what tags are given to me or what people think of me off the field – stuff like that. My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

Gays are some of the nicest, kindest, most loving people in the world.

When we’re looking for compassion, we need someone who is deeply rooted, is able to bend and, most of all, embraces us for our strengths and struggles.

The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.

Once conform, once do what other people do because they do it, and a lethargy steals over all the finer nerves and faculties of the soul. She becomes all outer show and inward emptiness; dull, callous, and indifferent.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

My body is like breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I don’t think about it, I just have it.

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it’s about earning approval and acceptance.

I was a Marine for 41 years, and it wasn’t long enough. We enjoy putting on that uniform.

Regrets are the natural property of grey hairs.

I refuse to allow any man-made differences to separate me from any other human beings.

I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

Being no bigot myself to any mode of worship, I am disposed to endulge the professors of Christianity in the church, that road to heaven which to them shall seem the most direct plainest easiest and least liable to exception.

It says nothing against the ripeness of a spirit that it has a few worms.

America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people. The image of the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus‘ famous poem. She lifts her lamp and welcomes people to the golden shore, where they will not experience prejudice because of the color of their skin, the religious faith that they follow.

If I make music and people hate it, you know, whatever. I’ll die someday, and one day, they will too.

We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you.

One day it will be over, and I don’t care.

Show me a poorly uniformed troop and I’ll show you a poorly uniformed leader.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

When your soul is resting, your emotions are okay, your mind is okay, and your will is at peace with God, not resisting what He’s doing.

You can bear your own faults, and why not a fault in your wife?

To me, it’s OK to have differences. But we don’t have to be mad about it. You know? And I think that’s where sometimes we get so passionate that we – you know, it turns into anger.

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.

Just as the humble, unassuming, assenting ‚O.K.‘ has deposed the more affirmative ‚Yes,‘ so the little cringe and hesitation and approximation of ‚like‘ are a help to young people who are struggling to negotiate the shoals and rapids of ethnic identity, the street, and general correctness.

We can’t form our children on our own concepts; we must take them and love them as God gives them to us.

I have seen many storms in my life. Most storms have caught me by surprise, so I had to learn very quickly to look further and understand that I am not capable of controlling the weather, to exercise the art of patience and to respect the fury of nature.

The fact that you are willing to say, ‚I do not understand, and it is fine,‘ is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst.

Beauty is an outward gift, which is seldom despised, except by those to whom it has been refused.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.

While children are struggling to be unique, the world around them is trying all means to make them look like everybody else.

I know that a large part of my fan base is gay. They’ve shown me love from the start. I mean in this industry, everyone from my glam people to my dancers are gay. You can’t be homophobic in this line of work – I’m a pop star!

Error is acceptable as long as we are young; but one must not drag it along into old age.

I don’t care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate… but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

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?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that’s how we’ve got to live.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

I belong to a gospel choir. They know I am an atheist but they are very tolerant.

Yes, Mother. I can see you are flawed. You have not hidden it. That is your greatest gift to me.

I’ll die a crazy old man!

If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.