Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, I say ignore the bastard.

I don’t think the ebbs and flows – get in great shape and then get out of shape and then see if you can get back into shape – is a good thing. So I prefer to keep my arm always ready to go.

The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.

When I have an idea, I turn down the flame, as if it were a little alcohol stove, as low as it will go. Then it explodes and that is my idea.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.

Plato is my friend; Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.

I can promise you that when I go to Sacramento, I will pump up Sacramento.

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

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

I don’t know what drives me to succeed.

Why do you want to get a good workout early in the morning? Well, because it sends more oxygen to your brain; it releases endorphins. It puts you in a state of mind where you can crush things, which is where you want to be.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

I subscribe to the myth that an artist’s creativity comes from torment. Once that’s fixed, what do you draw on?

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

I wouldn’t ever say if you’re having tough times then there must be something wrong with you or your attitude. Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith. I encourage people to stay up, stay hopeful, stay faith-filled.

I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it – and I may come back.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

When virtue is lost, benevolence appears, when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.

Susceptibility to the highest forces is the highest genius.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line. Don’t forget it.

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as full of dreams and excitement and ideas. I am then weakened and diminished, and made less rich.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

The truth. It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and must therefore be treated with great caution.

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

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

When I heard ‚Jesus, Take the Wheel,‘ I was like, OK. Some people look at it as a song written for an American Idol, Carrie Underwood, who is wonderful. But when you’re a songwriter listening to a song, you hear something else. I heard that song, and wow.

It was clear to me that if I could get through Princeton at the top of my class, I could do anything in the world.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

I want to put a ding in the universe.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

If four things are followed – having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance – then anything can be achieved.

I’d rather be a victor than a victim.

We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.

You’re born. You suffer. You die. Fortunately, there’s a loophole.

We don’t want to wait on someone to hire us and give us a check. We want to create our own opportunities.

When you think of the exponential speed and scale of expansion of social media or a service, you have to believe that it is equally possible to rapidly transform the lives of those who have long stood on the margins of hope.

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God’s Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.

I want people to draw strength from me.

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.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Man approaches the unattainable truth through a succession of errors.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could look forward to a whole world in which no child will be left behind?

If I inspire you, pay for it, period.

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

The poets are only the interpreters of the gods.