I want to be just a pure spiritual leader.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them.

I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

People who want the most approval get the least and people who need approval the least get the most.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

I am more afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great pope, Self.

Whenever I write a novel, I have a strong sense that I am doing something I was unable to do before. With each new work, I move up a step and discover something new inside me.

Death surrenders us totally to God: it makes us enter into him; we must, in return, surrender ourselves to death with absolute love and self-abandonment since, when death comes, all we can do is to surrender ourselves completely to the domination and guidance of God.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.

I don’t think I’m tangible to myself.

Some people carry their heart in their head and some carry their head in their heart. The trick is to keep them apart yet working together.

If you have the ability to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and start over, you come out stronger because you learn from whatever mistakes you made.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.

A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.

You don’t have to give way to careless speech or complaining. You don’t have to let your feelings get in the way of what God wants to do in your life.

Trust not yourself, but your defects to know, make use of every friend and every foe.

The American President resembles the commander of a ship at sea. He must have a helm to grasp, a course to steer, a port to seek.

Love of God is not always the same as love of good.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

Delhi means everything to me. This city has given me everything, and I love it.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

Once you start doing only what you’ve already proven you can do, you’re on the road to death.

The best part about being in your thirties is you know what works for you.

True happiness arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one’s self, and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

It’s amazing: I am a New Yorker. It’s strange; I never thought I would be.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

I am not handsome or sexy. Of course, it’s not like I am hopeless.

I’m more of an adventurous type than a relationship type.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

Don’t say I hate institutionalised religion – rather than saying I hate those things, which I do not, what I’m saying is that perhaps there is a way of opening more doors, rather than closing so many.

Die to everything of yesterday so that your mind is always fresh, always young, innocent, full of vigor and passion.

It is not the body’s posture, but the heart’s attitude that counts when we pray.

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

There is no necessity to separate the monarch from the mob; all authority is equally bad.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

If you’re losing your soul and you know it, then you’ve still got a soul left to lose.

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do well, that’s Memoirs.

To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

Yeah, I was a delinquent. It was when I was in the ninth grade. I was doing stupid stuff, and the cops came into the class. I was humiliated more than anything.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

Without forgiveness, there’s no future.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

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.

I think I had a mild case of Asperger’s as a younger guy, but that typically just wears off after a while.

I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance. The incense is powerful and provocative, whether Buddhist or Catholic.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

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