I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

While physics and mathematics may tell us how the universe began, they are not much use in predicting human behavior because there are far too many equations to solve. I’m no better than anyone else at understanding what makes people tick, particularly women.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

A black person grows up in this country – and in many places – knowing that racism will be as familiar as salt to the tongue. Also, it can be as dangerous as too much salt. I think that you must struggle for betterment for yourself and for everyone.

I think that there is never an indispensable leader, you know? I think that there is a time with dignity that one needs to leave.

If I don’t run for president, we’ll all be OK.

Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

I try to speak in a way that people can understand.

‚Thank you‘ is the best prayer that anyone could say. I say that one a lot. Thank you expresses extreme gratitude, humility, understanding.

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

The hope, the hope that lives in the breast of the black American, is just so tremendous that it overwhelms me sometimes.

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

It’s empowering to know I am doing something, I am taking a stand, I am disrupting.

Respect the burden.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

I trust my taste. I trust it completely and I always have done, and I’ve always thought it isn’t that different from everybody else’s.

A word after a word after a word is power.

Life cannot be without relationship, but we have made it so agonizing and hideous by basing it on personal and possessive love. Can one love and yet not possess? You will find the true answer not in escape, ideals, beliefs but through the understanding of the causes of dependence and possessiveness.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Chance gives rise to thoughts, and chance removes them; no art can keep or acquire them.

A leader who confines his role to his people’s experience dooms himself to stagnation; a leader who outstrips his people’s experience runs the risk of not being understood.

To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

Understand: any phenomenon in the world is by nature complex. The people you deal with are equally complex. Any action sets off a limitless chain of reactions. It is never so simple as A leads to B. B will lead to C, D and beyond.

I do believe that in order to be a successful negotiator that as a diplomat, you have to be able to put yourself into the other person’s shoes. Unless you can understand what is motivating them, you are never going to be able to figure out how to solve a particular problem.

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.

The capability of negotiating… is something that means you not only have to understand fully what you believe and what your national interests are but in order to be a really good negotiator, you have to try to figure out what the other person on the other side of the table has in mind.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

I mean, if you didn’t get it or if you didn’t feel like you enjoyed it, sometimes that experience can change.

For me to talk with Obama and the conversation I had with him, I was letting him know that me and my fans have a special connection, and it’s love, and I believe that love is the answer.

Freedom is something that dies unless it’s used.

No one can resist the idea of a crippled genius.

All I ever wanted to do with my life was own a little house. I did that way back with ‚Rocky,‘ so now everything I do is just icing on the cake.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

The truths of religion are never so well understood as by those who have lost the power of reason.

I remember being in Japan when Destiny’s Child put out ‚Independent Women,‘ and women there were saying how proud they were to have their own jobs, their own independent thinking, their own goals. It made me feel so good, and I realized that one of my responsibilities was to inspire women in a deeper way.

Control is the source of strategic power.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

I’ve done many ads because that’s my new career. It’s an inspiring extension for my mind.

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

I am able to play monsters well. I understand monsters. I understand madmen.

I ain’t never far away from a pencil and paper or a tape recorder.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Do everything as in the eye of another.

There’s no one way to be creative. Any old way will work.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Trust is central to an economy that works.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.