Why regret anything? Where does it get you to regret anything you’ve ever done in your life? It gets you nowhere. It’s a pathetic emotion that you can wallow in.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

Marriage is a school itself. Also, having children. Becoming a father changed my whole life. It taught me as if by revelation.

Playing Etta James in the movie ‚Cadillac Records‘ really changed me. It was a darker character, and I realized that if anything is too comfortable, I want to run from it. It’s no fun being safe.

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.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

I always say this about my music, and music in general: Music is like a time capsule. Each album reflects what I’m going through or what’s going on in my life at that moment.

I don’t have emotional needs, only physical ones.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories – and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories.

Die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigor and passion.

We all have experiences in our lives that change us, and we all learn from people, like my dad, but at the end of the day, it’s only us. And we’re only responsible to make ourselves happy.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

The older I get, the more important the eternal becomes to me personally.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.

One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

It is important to remember yourself.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever; no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself; no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing.

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don’t always agree with them.

I believe that having a spiritual life is so important in everybody’s life.

Now that I understand that I’m an addict, I definitely have compassion for my mother. I get it.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

When I was married, I definitely went through a lying period.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

I think, when you are growing up, you have to pull apart from what your mother wants or needs. You’ve got to go your own way, and that’s what I did.

I fear that too many have sadly surrendered their agency to the adversary and are saying by their conduct, ‚I care more about satisfying my own desires than I do about bearing the Savior’s power to bless others.‘

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

I don’t really get nervous that much, or if I do, only I know. It’s all inside me. I am good at hiding everything.

Little by little, not by making big promises, I need to be calmer, read more, spend more time with my loved ones, and be more mindful about nature and environment.

Precepts or maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones on hand do more to produce a happy life than the volumes we can’t find.

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

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

There are two things a person should never be angry at, what they can help, and what they cannot.

I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now.

I restore myself when I’m alone.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

I’ve learned over the years that when I go to that place of passion within me, there’s no force in the universe that can interfere with my completing a project.

I don’t do things for the response or for the controversy. I just live my life.

O wretched man, wretched not just because of what you are, but also because you do not know how wretched you are!

I’m not good at talking about myself.

Teach me to feel another’s woe, to hide the fault I see, that mercy I to others show, that mercy show to me.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.

There’s definitely going to be things that I’m not very good at, things I can improve.

I sometimes have a tendency to walk on the dark side.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

I wake up in the morning and my heart is light, man. It’s not heavy. I don’t have skeletons in the closet on their way out.

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

You’re going to go through tough times – that’s life. But I say, ‚Nothing happens to you, it happens for you.‘ See the positive in negative events.

To this day, some of my closest friends say, ‚Gaga, you know, everything’s great. You’re a singer; your dreams have come true.‘ But, still, when certain things are said to you over and over again as you’re growing up, it stays with you and you wonder if they’re true.