All my adult life people have been helping me.

Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.

Adopt responsibility for your own well-being, try to put your family together, try to serve your community, try to seek for eternal truth… That’s the sort of thing that can ground you in your life, enough so that you can withstand the difficulty of life.

They might not need me; but they might. I’ll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.

No person is important enough to make me angry.

Back when I was in school, few people understood dyslexia and what to do for it. My teachers thought I was lazy and not very clever, and I got bored easily… thinking of all the things I could do once I left school. I couldn’t always follow what was going on.

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.

Watch out for the joy-stealers: gossip, criticism, complaining, faultfinding, and a negative, judgmental attitude.

The experience of pain or loss can be a formidably motivating force.

No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.

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.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable.

I would like to fly in space. Absolutely. That would be cool. I used to just do personally risky things, but now I’ve got kids and responsibilities, so I can’t be my own test pilot. That wouldn’t be a good idea. But I definitely want to fly as soon as it’s a sensible thing to do.

Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us… While what we call ‚our own life‘ remains agreeable, we will not surrender it to Him. What, then, can God do in our interests but make ‚our own life‘ less agreeable to us, and take away the plausible sources of false happiness?

I want people to draw strength from me.

Dear friends, we may well sing to our Beloved when it is near the time of our departure. It draws near, and as it approaches, we must not dread it, but rather thank God for it.

I’m not perfect.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

It’s amazing if you just listen to people. They tell you all the time things that you can do for them, without even realizing what they’re doing. I’ve learned to take notice of those things and if it’s something that I feel God wants me to do, then I try to do that to add joy to their life.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

Brad was a huge surprise to me. I think we were both the last two people who were looking for a relationship. I certainly wasn’t. I was quite content to be a single mom with Mad.

We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.

A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.

I just want to be myself.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

I didn’t think it was special to be able to sing.

When you’re in hell, you forget how great you really are because you’re suffering and you forget the great things you’ve done.

However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

I’m of the school of thought where if you can’t sort something out for yourself then no one can help you.

I make such big efforts to forget things and I can’t tell the story of my life because, thank God, I’m still living it.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

The blessed of us must save the less of us. I’m blessed, and yeah, I’m planning to go to Heaven.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

Life is too short for long-term grudges.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

Enemies are so stimulating.

A daily portion is really all we need. We do not need tomorrow’s supply, for that day has not yet dawned, and its needs are still unborn.

You may make some mistakes – but that doesn’t make you a sinner. You’ve got the very nature of God on the inside of you.

Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.

I have much more support than most women around this world, and I have the financial means to have a home and help with care and food.

The love we give away is the only love we keep.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

If you treat people right they will treat you right… ninety percent of the time.

God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him! The charms of the heaven in the bush are superseded, I fear, by the heaven in the hand, occasionally.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

Lots of songs aren’t even from my experiences, but they’re about accepting… the dark things about yourself.