And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

Life is so, so short. Bible says it’s like a vapor.

I’ve watched a lot of people who became famous who completely change and I think it’s because they tend to believe all the hype that’s out there. I don’t think there’s that much hype about me.

The minority is sometimes right; the majority always wrong.

The eye sees what it brings the power to see.

I don’t have people following me around, like bodyguards. I don’t know how people live like that. Maybe the young movie stars have to live like that, I don’t know. But it seems a little crazy to me. I don’t think you need all that stuff.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

People don’t want drama 365 days a year. I’m a sense of relief; it’s my job to take your mind off what’s bad for that brief second you’re in the room with me, regardless of shape, race, colour or anything. It brings people together, and it makes me feel good about what I’m doing.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

When you go on your Twitter or look down your Timeline and it’s all great positivity – I love that. But at the same time, it can really divert you from what your purpose is or what you’re trying to do. And I’ve seen artists get caught up in that.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

There is nothing that makes its way more directly into the soul than beauty.

Life is divided into the horrible and the miserable.

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

Early on, I was so impressed with Charles Dickens. I grew up in the South, in a little village in Arkansas, and the whites in my town were really mean, and rude. Dickens, I could tell, wouldn’t be a man who would curse me out and talk to me rudely.

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.

God is a great God! I want to encourage you to expect great things from Him.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

Do not do unto others as you expect they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

The only passion that guides me is for the truth… I look at everything from this point of view.

Life is our dictionary.

Oh, yes; you Virginians shed barrels of perspiration while standing off at a distance and superintending the work your slaves do for you. It is different with us. Here it is every fellow for himself, or he doesn’t get there.

It’s presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.

In art the best is good enough.

He that is giddy thinks the world turns round.

I want people to draw strength from me.

I’m never a reliable narrator, unbiased or objective.

We see the world not as it is, but as we are.

Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.

I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.

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

Love. Fall in love and stay in love. Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

We are in a wrong state of mind if we are not in a thankful state of mind.

You are important enough to ask and you are blessed enough to receive back.

If you think only of evil, then you become pessimistic and hopeless like Freud. But if you think there is no evil, then you’re just one more deluded Pollyanna.

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.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

Love is the answer, and you know that for sure; Love is a flower, you’ve got to let it grow.

Every wall is a door.

Probably because I’m from a middle class family, I have that nature in me that I don’t get too excited with big things.

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.

Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.

Don’t ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It’s too short, and you’re too special.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.

Satan wants us to constantly focus on everything that is wrong with us and look at how far we still have to go. But God desires for us to rejoice in how far we have already come.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

When you hear people making hateful comments, stand up to them. Point out what a waste it is to hate, and you could open their eyes.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

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