I think the foundation of everything in my life is wonder.

However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.

I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I’ll have a window with a view.

Music has the power to inspire the world.

The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.

We are born, so to speak, twice over; born into existence, and born into life; born a human being, and born a man.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.

Everything is clearer when you’re in love.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green.

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

Men freely believe that which they desire.

Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples.

I’m never going to go to Mars, but I’ve helped inspire, thank goodness, the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars.

Our life is made by the death of others.

To not follow your passion in life is a recipe for failure and unhappiness.

Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

The fellow that can only see a week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd. But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it.

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

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.

When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.

It’s a blessing that South Africa has a man like Nelson Mandela.

The main rule to me is to honor God with your life. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others. But that’s really the essence of the Christian faith.

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death’s the other.

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.

From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

People who think you could wave a magic wand and the legacy of the past will be over are blind.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.

I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.

Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Life’s a bit like mountaineering – never look down.

I liked his ability to deal with a lot of the negativity that surrounded him. Even though he was in a world that he didn’t want to be in, he still saw the bigger picture.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

Life tends to be an accumulation of a lot of mundane decisions, which often gets ignored.

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

Before I do anything, I think, well what hasn’t been seen. Sometimes, that turns out to be something ghastly and not fit for society. And sometimes that inspiration becomes something that’s really worthwhile.

Who’s my hero? That’s a great question… Well, I think my dad is my hero, because he’s someone I look up to every day.

Sporadic thoughts will pop into my head and I’ll have to go write something down, and the next thing you know I’ve written a whole song in an hour.

Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn.

When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It’s inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting.

A well-written life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.

If I went back to my 20-year-old self, what I would tell my 20-year-old self is, ‚You don’t know anything.‘ Because everyone, when they’re young, they think they know what’s going on in the world, and you don’t.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

You know, as a writer, I’m more of a listener than a writer, cuz if I hear something I will write it down.

If you only believe that you’re an artist when you have a big advance in your pocket and a single coming out, I would say that’s quite soulless. You have to have a sense of your own greatness and your own ability from a very deep place inside you. I am the one with the litmus test in my hands of what people need to hear next.

My work is about my life, and what I want to do with it.

I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.

I think that cancer is a life form that exists out there, and it exists in us. I think even the concept of healing is a spiritual principle that we have to really look at. I think the word itself is something we ought to get rid of, because it implies that there is illness – that there is something wrong.

When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘