You cannot see the changes that you’re dreaming about, because they’re internal.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

Take time to gather up the past so that you will be able to draw from your experience and invest them in the future.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

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.

I learned a long time ago how to be coachable.

Sometimes I’ve called writing a disease. If so, I’m glad that it caught me.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

I don’t look at myself as a commodity, but I’m sure a lot of people have.

You always have to remember that if you say something negative, it’s going to come back to haunt you.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

I think who you are in school really sticks with you.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

I cry so much less than I used to. I used to be one of the most teary people.

I really haven’t had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I’d rather tell a story about somebody else.

When I look back on my life as a whole, it is impossible for me not to feel blessed.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

Humble people ask for help.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

If somebody thinks they’re a hedgehog, presumably you just give ‚em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

I’m so wrapped up in my work that it’s often impossible to consider other things in my life. My marriage ended in divorce because of this, my relationship with Holly has suffered by this.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

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

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy. My ultimate goal is to end up being happy. Most of the time.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

Remind yourself that the greatest technique for bringing peace into your life is to always choose being kind when you have a choice between being right or being kind.

Little things affect little minds.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

Sometimes, I feel like one who is on the sidelines, who has missed life itself.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public life.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy – but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that’s how I am guided.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I’ll say that. Wonder and terror.

One thing I hope I’ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am will never work in this town again.

Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

I don’t think any country is perfect. It’s our responsibility to do the best we can do to change the things we don’t like. I think that’s part of social responsibility, and everybody is going to do that in their own way.

My whole life is a theater piece.

People should not make me out to be like Jesus; I don’t walk on water.

Each has his past shut in him like the leaves of a book known to him by his heart, and his friends can only read the title.