You can’t do something forever.

It’s true that I’ve never had a burning desire to rebel against my parents.

You could not step twice into the same rivers; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.

It is a hard thing to let go of mistakes we’ve made and sins. God wants us to do that because He knows the guilt and the condemnation will keep us from becoming who He has created us to be.

I think I’m pretty smart. I think I’m pretty clever. But there’s a lot that you hone in on when you finish your education.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

I don’t want to be something that just comes and goes.

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.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Everything has changed, and nothing has changed more than the world of fashion.

I’m not concerned with your liking or disliking me… All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.

Here in America, we don’t give in to our fears. We don’t build up walls to keep people out.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

It takes no more time to see the good side of life than it takes to see the bad.

Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.

If all you’re doing is grinding for the man, it’s going to burden you. Once you say, ‚Hey, I’m grinding for the man, but I’m putting money away, and this is part of my exit strategy,‘ you’re working for you.

We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.

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

Revolutions go not backward.

Sometimes I’m a bit under-aggressive and sometimes a bit over. But I think it’s good to have both.

I’ve discovered that when we take time to renew our minds with God’s Word, we learn how to think like God thinks, say what God says, and act like He wants us to act.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.

I grew up as this very carefree, happy kid then things turned darker for me. Maybe it was because I saw that the world wasn’t as happy a place as I had hoped it would be for me.

Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense, and discover when it is too late that the only things one never regrets are one’s mistakes.

Showing off is the fool’s idea of glory.

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I’ve seen the profound impact he’s had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

When I wake up in the morning, I feel just like any other insecure 24-year-old girl.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.

If you are lonely when you’re alone, you are in bad company.

I can’t jump the highest. I’m obviously not the biggest, not the strongest.

If it’s stress of things that we cannot control, what you have to do is you mitigate that stress as much as possible. You’ve planned, you’ve trained, you’ve done everything you can in your power to mitigate the stress that’s facing you. And then after that, there’s nothing you can do. So, you have to let that one go.

You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.

I’m working at trying to be a Christian, and that’s serious business. It’s like trying to be a good Jew, a good Muslim, a good Buddhist, a good Shintoist, a good Zoroastrian, a good friend, a good lover, a good mother, a good buddy – it’s serious business.

Freedom is not given to us by anyone; we have to cultivate it ourselves. It is a daily practice… No one can prevent you from being aware of each step you take or each breath in and breath out.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

My ‚fear‘ is my substance, and probably the best part of me.

It was weird to be married; you kind of lose your identity. You’re suddenly somebody’s wife. And you’re like, ‚Oh, I’m half of a couple now. I’ve lost me.‘

I don’t write so much now. I’m getting on 33, pot belly and creeping dementia.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

If you don’t live your life, then who will?

The thing about Jiu Jitsu is it is also not for everybody. It can be very humiliating and humbling. If you have a hard time dealing with the fact that someone smaller than you may be able to tap you out, it is going to be difficult.

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

I was born with a great gift, and sometimes with that comes a destructive streak.

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.