I think that we have opportunities all around us - sometimes we just don't recognize them.

I hope you remember that today is never too late to be brand-new.

Black women have not historically stood in the pulpit, but that doesn't undermine the fact that they built the churches and maintain the pulpits.

The thing always happens that you really believe in, and the belief in a thing makes it happen.

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So spread your love everywhere you go.

Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.

His success may be great, but be it ever so great the wheel of fortune may turn again and bring him down into the dust.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

I don't think of myself as a poor, deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who, from an early age, knew I was responsible for myself and I had to make good.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Excellence is not an act but a habit

I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.

I have found that, among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

Virtue is persecuted more by the wicked than it is loved by the good.

Acquire new knowledge whilst thinking over the old and you may become a teacher of others.

How far that little candle throws its beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.

We cannot despair of humanity since we ourselves are human beings.

You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.

Man should forget his anger before he lies down to sleep.

There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.

Violent means will give violent freedom. That would be a menace to the world and to India herself.

Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you, yet someone survived!

No legacy is so rich as honesty.

We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.

We must abandon completely the notion of blaming the past for any kind of situation we’re in and reverse our thinking and see that the past always flows back form the present. 

If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.

Peace cannot be kept by force, it can only be achieved by understanding.

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

It is not best that we should all think alike, it is a difference of opinion that makes horse races.

It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.

Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.

All through my life, I have been tested. My will has been tested, my courage has been tested, my strength has been tested. Now my patience and endurance are being tested.

One should always play fairly when one has the winning cards.

You lose nothing when fighting for a cause... In my mind the losers are those who don't have a cause they care about.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given, than to explore the power they have to change it. 

That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all, without regard to race - Dis a war.

Only the fittest of the fittest shall survive - Stay alive!

Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect, but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.

The day you stop racing, is the day you win the race.

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?

My feet is my only carriage.

Live for yourself and you will live in vain; live for others, and you will live again.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.

Doubt that the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move his aides, doubt truth to be a liar, but never doubt I love.

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

I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other.

Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.

Seeking but not finding the house builder, I traveled through life after life. How painful is repeated birth! House-builders you have now been seen. You will not build the house again.

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words, it is expressed in the choices one makes... and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

Love remains a secret even when spoken, for only a true lover truly knows that he is loved.

The best kind of wealth is to give up inordinate desires.

In death the many become one; in life the one become many.

The real friendship is like fluorescence, it shines better when everything has darken.

The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain but for the heart to conquer it.

It is in the very heart of our activity that we search for our goal.

We cross infinity with every step; we meet eternity in every second.

The problem is not how to wipe out all differences, but how to unite with all differences intact.

The main object of teaching is not to give explanations, but to knock at the doors of the mind.

You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed.

Each time we embrace someone warmly, we gain an extra day of life.

Miracles only happen if you believe in miracles.

Don't give to anyone the power to put you down. Haters are losers pretending to be winners.

The best way to serve God is by going in search of your own dreams. Only the happy can spread happiness.

Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into someone you are not.

Accumulating love brings luck, accumulating hatred brings calamity.

Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them, for good or ill.

The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.

Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. You’ve got to find the treasure, so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense.

The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.

If you want to see a rainbow you have to learn to see the rain.

A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

A life not lived for others is not a life.

Your true character is most accurately measured by how you treat those who can do 'nothing' for you.

Without patience, we will learn less in life. We will see less. We will feel less. We will hear less. Ironically, rush and more usually mean less.

There is a light in this world, a healing spirit more powerful than any darkness we may encounter. We sometimes lose sight of this force when there is suffering, too much pain. Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge through the lives of ordinary people who hear a call and answer in extraordinary ways.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

Whenever you share love with others, you'll notice the peace that comes to you and to them.

If you have a sick or lonely person at home, be there. Maybe just to hold a hand, maybe just to give a smile, that is the greatest, the most beautiful work.

In the end, dear friend, it is always between us and God, not between us and them.

None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.

Speak tenderly; let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.

Never worry about numbers. Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.

Some people come in our life as blessings. Some come in your life as lessons.

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

We are all pencils in the hand of God.

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Jesus said love one another. He didn't say love the whole world.

It is a kingly act to assist the fallen.

I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims, the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is nobody really possesses it.

It is a grand mistake to think of being great without goodness, and I pronounce it as certain that there was never a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous.

Love and serve the homeland, do not hate or hurt the homeland of others.

As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

Those who cannot renounce attachment to the results of their work are far from the path.

The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.

The deeper sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

It is well to give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans; in one aspect of You are found all the aspects of existence.

They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.

Cultivate your curves - they may be dangerous, but they won't be avoided.

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

When prosperity comes do not use all of it.

You learned people and artists have, no doubt, all sorts of superior things in your heads; but you're human beings like the rest of us, and we, too, have our dreams and fancies.

Each of us is merely one human being, merely an experiment, a way station. But each of us should be on the way toward perfection, should be striving to reach the center, not the periphery.

Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at anytime and be yourself.

Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, if he is able to wait, if he is able to fast.

An enlightened man had but one duty - to seek the way to himself, to reach inner certainty, to grope his way forward, no matter where it led.

The world is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment, every sin already carries grace in it.

I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself.

Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the center, toward true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame of their fervor cannot always be seen.

He had loved and had found himself. But most people love to lose themselves.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves. A whole society composed of men afraid of the unknown within them!

He has robbed me, yet he has given me something of greater value... he has given to me myself.

There is no reality except the one contained within us. That is why so many people live such an unreal life. They take the images outside of them for reality and never allow the world within to assert itself.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It's very simple.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows them like a never-departing shadow.

I do not dispute with the world; rather it is the world that disputes with me.

Love is always bestowed as a gift - freely, willingly, and without expectation. We don't love to be loved, we love to love.

Well begun is half done.

There will be little rubs and disappointments everywhere and we are all apt to expect too much, but then if one scheme of happiness fails human nature turns to another, if the first calculation is wrong we make a second better: we find comfort somewhere...

All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right and not what is established.

When music and courtesy are better understood and appreciated, there will be no war.

Life is never fair and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

I hate the giving of the hand unless the whole man accompanies it.

To be good is noble, but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.

For those who are willing to make an effort, great miracles and wonderful treasures are in store.

You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be or not to be.

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.

We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.

The essence of all religions is one. Only their approaches are different.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

Truly great people in history never wanted to be great for themselves. All they wanted was the chance to do good for others and be close to God.

Others may know pleasure, but pleasure is not happiness. It has no more importance than a shadow following a man.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good the good is only temporary, the evil it does is permanent.

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind, he can find the way to Enlightenment and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.

Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got. Love it with a passion because life truly does give back many times over what you put into it.

The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

This is my life. It is my one time to be me. I want to experience every good thing.

Love builds up the broken wall and straigtens the crooked path. Love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on the ocean tides. Each of us is created of it and I suspect each of us was created for it.

Better the man that conquer a thousand-thousand men is the one who conquer one himself.

No great art has ever been made without the artist having known danger.

Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon come out from behind the clouds! Shine!

Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

There is an afterlife. I am convinced of this.

Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first the foundation of humility.

As from a large heap of flowers many garlands and wreaths are made, so by a mortal in this life there is much good work to be done.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

It is in men, as in soils, where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. Please remember that your difficulties do not define you. They simply strengthen your ability to overcome.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

One strength of the communist system of the East is that it has some of the character of a religion and inspires the emotions of a religion.

Never seek illicit wealth.

We are all alike on the inside.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.

I never had a policy, I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.

A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.

It is very difficult for the prosperous to be humble.

Don't be an art critic. Paint. There lies salvation.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.

I investigate things to complete my knowledge, my complete knowledge makes my thoughts sincere, my thoughts being sincere, my heart is pure.

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing.

Man is the only animal that blushes - or needs to.

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else, you are the one who gets burned.

I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death, can erase our good deeds.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you, or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first then you are a parasite, if the second then you are an oasis in the desert.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

Boldness be my friend.

Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.

What the statesman is most anxious to produce is a certain moral character in his fellow citizens, namely a disposition to virtue and the performance of virtuous actions.

Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love, than one who inspires fear.

Some day I shall be President.

A man may conquer a million men in battle, but one who conquers himself is indeed the greatest of conquerors.

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.

I really believe in the philosophy that you create your own universe. I'm just trying to create a good one for myself.

Though we may know Him by a thousand names, He is one and the same to us all.

Never hesitate to ask a lesser person.

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination, full of hope.

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.

Arm yourselves and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict, for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar.

It is better to be violent if there is violence in our hearts than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.

The critic has to educate the public, the artist has to educate the critic.

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

If patience is worth anything it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

If you believe you can, you probably can. If you believe you won't, you most assuredly won't. Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.

All my life I have tried to pluck a thistle and plant a flower wherever the flower would grow, in thought and mind.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Love is like a virus. It can happen to anybody at any time.

Give your hands to serve and your hearts to love.

There is nothing that wastes the body like worry and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children.

Let us all be brave enough to die the death of a martyr, but let no one lust for martyrdom.

The power of doing anything with quickness is always prized much by the possessor and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance.

Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around.

Nature does nothing uselessly.

Laws control the lesser man... Right conduct controls the greater one.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress and grows brave by reflection.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

The Divine pervades everything in the Universe. This may not be understood by everyone. Some may not agree that the Divine is Omnipresent. But whether they accept this fact or not the truth is evidence of the presence of God can be found wherever one turns.

By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them and then you destroy yourself.

The courage of very ordinary people is all that stands between us and the dark.

The direction of the mind is more important than its progress.

I'm not claiming divinity. I've never claimed purity of soul. I've never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can... But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

Destiny grants us our wishes, but in its own way, in order to give us something beyond our wishes.

True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist but what they mean, it is not memory but judgment.

Do not differentiate on the basis of race, caste, creed or country.

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested, on the contrary - he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.

I've always believed that there are funny people everywhere but they're just not comedians. In fact some of my best comedic inspirations were not professional entertainers.

Obviously one must hold oneself responsible for the evil impulses of one's dreams. In what other way can one deal with them? Unless the content of the dream rightly understood is inspired by alien spirits it is part of my own being.

Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.

Love is the attempt to form a friendship inspired by beauty.

Love... it surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.

The more people smoke herb the more Babylon fall.

A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.

Give me my robe, put on my crown, I have Immortal longings in me.

Develop an attitude of gratitude and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Compassion in which all ethics must take root can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.

Be thankful for what you have, you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ever have enough.

The real fault is to have faults and not to amend them.

The only thing I do is just pray for inspiration for a way of thinking because I don't have any particular goal in sight.

Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.

A good painting to me has always been like a friend. It keeps me company comforts and inspires.

It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

He is now rising from affluence to poverty.

For everything I do, I think about a 6-year-old girl and her mom that I saw at my concert last night. I think about what those two individuals would think if I were at a club last night. I never want to be arrested and I never want to get a DUI, those are my moral values.

Of all religions the Christian should of course inspire the most tolerance but until now Christians have been the most intolerant of all men.

We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared, for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

Follow the Master, face the devil, fight to the end, finish the game.

Lord, save us all from a hope tree that has lost the faculty of putting out blossoms.

Most folks want to believe in Armstrong in the credibility of his courage in the veracity of his inspiration in the purity of his Tour de France titles. Most want to believe but does everyone dare? We've been suckers for hearts-and-flowers icons before.

While I take inspiration from the past like most Americans I live for the future.

He who has really set his mind on virtue will do no evil.

What an antithetical mind! -- tenderness roughness -- delicacy coarseness -- sentiment sensuality -- soaring and groveling dirt and deity -- all mixed up in that one compound of inspired clay!

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime, for one swallow does not a summer make.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

If you cannot inspire a woman with love of you fill her above the brim with love of herself, all that runs over will be yours.

Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.

We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us, to the janitors who kept our school clean... and we were taught to value everyone's contribution and treat everyone with respect.

Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value.

Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.

I know the Bible is inspired because it inspires me.

We can never learn too much of His will towards us too much of His messages and His advice. The Bible is His word and its study gives at once the foundation for our faith and an inspiration to battle onward in the fight against the tempter.

The inspiration of the Bible depends upon the ignorance of the gentleman who reads it.

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident.

Be not penny-wise. Riches have wings. Sometimes they fly away of themselves and sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more.

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

Reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude and hearing the good Dhamma, this is the best good luck

Selfishness is one of the qualities apt to inspire love.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause.

His genius he was quite content in one brief sentence to define, Of inspiration one percent of perspiration ninety nine.

He who requires much from himself and little from others will keep himself from being the object of resentment.

Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.

In life you need either inspiration or desperation.

I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others.

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Every day the people I meet inspire me... every day they make me proud... every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth.

Let everyone try and find that as a result of daily prayer he adds something new to his life, something with which nothing can be compared.

When we see persons of worth we should think of equaling them, when we see persons of a contrary character we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.

WOMEN preserve the culture of this country with greater tenacity and faith. They keep men on the moral path and inspire them to follow spiritual discipline. Their hearts are tender and full of compassion for the hungry and the distressed. That is why in this land women are adored and revered.

Politics is for the present but an equation is for eternity.