When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future.

The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.

Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

The most challenging project I’ve ever done, I think, is every single thing I’ve ever tried to do. It’s never easy.

We occasionally stumble over the truth but most of us pick ourselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

Oh, I’ve always been very… Emotional. ‚Hypersensitive‘ is what they call it, I think.

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.

He who has faith has… an inward reservoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, and assuring trust that all will come out well – even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

You can’t have it all, all at once. Who – man or woman – has it all, all at once? Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all. But in different periods of time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

‚Trilogy‘ was more of a claustrophobic body of work. Before it was released, I hadn’t left my city for 21 years, and I had never been on a plane, not once. I spent my entire life on one setting; that’s probably why pieces of the album feel like one long track, because that’s what my life felt like. It felt like one long song.

Absolutely not. I have no problem with commitment. In fact, I love having someone in my life.

I learned a long time ago the wisest thing I can do is be on my own side, be an advocate for myself and others like me.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

It’s very unnatural to be someone for so many people. But of course it’s very nice.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

If I could give you information of my life, it would be to show how a woman of very ordinary ability has been led by God in strange and unaccustomed paths to do In His service what He has done in her. And if I could tell you all, you would see how God has done all, and I nothing.

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.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.

When you cease to exist, then who will you blame?

I never expected to be anybody important.

Character is power.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

People make jokes about my bosoms, why don’t they look underneath the breasts at the heart? It’s obvious I’ve got big ones and if people want to assume they’re not mine, then let them.

Songwriting is my way of channeling my feelings and my thoughts. Not just mine, but the things I see, the people I care about. My head would explode if I didn’t get some of that stuff out.

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.

Wanting to feel good is synonymous with wanting to feel God.

This was life in the ’30s. This is the way it was with children in the South. I tried to make it general, the kind of things that might happen to any child.

At the end of the day, I understand that life has road blocks, and life is like school – you’ll be tested; we gotta pass it.

There are some Christian people who taste and see and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.

During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.

I was lousy in school. Real screwed-up. A moron. I was antisocial and didn’t bother with the other kids. A really bad student. I didn’t have any brains. I didn’t know what I was doing there. That’s why I became an actor.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

There’s something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we know.

They died hard, those savage men – like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

I’ve been running a full marathon every year for more than 20 years, and my record is getting worse. Getting older, getting worse. It’s natural.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

I don’t have the best track record with quotes.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.

I’ve been in the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus since I was 8.

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

By indignities men come to dignities.

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.

Character develops itself in the stream of life.

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

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.