The first test of a truly great man is his humility. By humility I don’t mean doubt of his powers or hesitation in speaking his opinion, but merely an understanding of the relationship of what he can say and what he can do.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.

He is lost who is possessed by carnal desire.

Be content to seem what you really are.

I always keep my guard up with guys and I guess that can get in the way sometimes. I can make them go through hell.

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before.

Well, there are some things that I just can’t get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they’re of my own creation, as well – and they’re just as annoying. It’s not only other people’s ear worms that bug me, it’s my own, as well.

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

I am tough, but deep inside my toughness, I like to let people know I’m an old-fashioned mama’s boy.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.

The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths.

Someone said to me, ‚If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?‘ My answer was then and still is, ‚If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.‘

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

When I’m out on the football field, I have so much confidence in what I’m doing.

There’s certainly a side of me that isn’t completely… sane. Or completely ‚even‘ all the time. We all have our dark sides.

Our personal intelligence is everlasting and divine.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

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.

The beauty of me being on stage is I have a voice.

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

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.

My confidence is easy to shake. I am very well aware of all of my flaws. I am aware of all the insecurities that I have.

My weaknesses have always been food and men – in that order.

Breathing in, I am aware of my heart. Breathing out, I smile to my heart and know that my heart still functions normally. I feel grateful for my heart.

If a person doesn’t change, there’s something really wrong with him.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

My children came out as individuals in their own right. They were not my products. They had their own characters and were very strong-minded. I gave them a lot of freedom when they were still very young. The one thing they got from me is morals. They would never betray anyone. They are really good people.

As you get older, the questions come down to about two or three. How long? And what do I do with the time I’ve got left?

An author who speaks about their own books is almost as bad as a mother who speaks about her own children.

There’s always going to be people who don’t understand or accept the united science, and I will just ignore them, as I’m only acting and communicating on the science.

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.

No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life.

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely – the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears – when you give your whole attention to it.

You know, most people really don’t know me.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

But by reading them again and again finally I was able to grasp the essential part. What emotion, enthusiasm, enlightenment and confidence they communicated to me! I wept for joy.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.

I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.

Joanne‘ is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – never knowing.

When I say something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

Vanity is but the surface.

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

There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known.

If you deny people their own voice, you’ll have no idea of who they were.

I’m not trying to be sexy. It’s just my way of expressing myself when I move around.

I think what’s important is for us to decipher what is honest and what is dishonest and be accepting of those things and not operating from fear.

When you are full of pride on the inside, it makes you stiff, stubborn, and creates strife with others.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

I don’t know if I particularly want to be remembered for anything. I personally do not think I’m a great gift to the world. I’ve been very fortunate.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

I don’t pretend to understand the Universe – it’s a great deal bigger than I am.

The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.