One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

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

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

What is true belongs to me!

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

I don’t have emotional needs, only physical ones.

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.

You need to understand what works best for your own body.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

There are a lot of ‚chicken Christians.‘ Chickens are generally afraid of life, and they seldom fly or reach their potential in life. And when a storm comes, all they seem to do is flap around the chicken yard, stirring up dirt and running to the chicken house.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Without being the most confident person in the world, I think I am the right person for Liverpool.

I don’t think any country is perfect. It’s our responsibility to do the best we can do to change the things we don’t like. I think that’s part of social responsibility, and everybody is going to do that in their own way.

The image is one thing and the human being is another. It’s very hard to live up to an image, put it that way.

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

It didn’t even occur to me that I’m the last person in the world who should play salsa or Brazilian music.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.

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

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are half awake.

You can’t talk your way out of problems you behave yourself into.

My body is quite tiny, but a lot of the emotions I feel are pretty explosive. They have to come out.

Because I am a mother, I am capable of being shocked: as I never was when I was not one.

A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.

I’m not going to stop having problems.

Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

My work is the only ground I’ve ever had to stand on. To put it bluntly, I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation, but I’m working on the foundation.

What I can say is that all my characters are searching for their souls, because they are my mirrors. I’m someone who is constantly trying to understand my place in the world, and literature is the best way that I found in order to see myself.

Life’s too short to deal with other people’s insecurities.

Good luck has its storms.

I undertake the same project as Montaigne, but with an aim contrary to his own: for he wrote his Essays only for others, and I write my reveries only for myself.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

I’m inconsistent, even to myself.

Especially for those of us who lived in single cells, you had the time to sit down and think, and we discovered that sitting down just to think is one of the best ways of keeping yourself fresh and able, to be able to address the problems facing you, and you had the opportunity, also, of examining your past.

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

Eight years ago, you may remember Hillary and I were rivals for the Democratic nomination. We battled for a year and a half. Let me tell you, it was tough, because Hillary was tough. I was worn out. She was doing everything I was doing, but just like Ginger Rogers, it was backwards in heels.

It’s an offseason. These days are valuable for everybody.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

First and foremost, we need to be the adults we want our children to be. We should watch our own gossiping and anger. We should model the kindness we want to see.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens.

One is still what one is going to cease to be and already what one is going to become. One lives one’s death, one dies one’s life.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

That’s something I think is growing on me as I get older: happy endings.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

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

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Some people would like me to be round again.

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

I think it’s very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everything’s going to be all right, even when you’re not sure it is.

Life is not accumulation, it is about contribution.

I kinda live where I find myself.