"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."

"All great achievements require time."

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

"If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities."

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

"You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."

"I believe that every person is born with talent."

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"When you learn, teach. When you get, give."

"We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated."

"Nothing will work unless you do."

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"What you're supposed to do when you don't like a thing is change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it. Don't complain."

"When someone shows you who they are believe them the first time."

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

"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently."

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it"

"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."

"I don't trust people who don't love themselves and tell me, 'I love you.' ... There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt."

"I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."

"Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness."

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it."

"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."

"Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time."

"Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option."

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."

"You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you."

"A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her."

"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."

"You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody."

"The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise."

"Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!"

"If I am not good to myself, how can I expect anyone else to be good to me?"

"Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman."

"Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances."

"No matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."

"You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes, you may kill me with your hatefulness, but still, like air, I'll rise!"

"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean."

"Most people don't grow up. Most people age. They find parking spaces, honor their credit cards, get married, have children, and call that maturity. What that is, is aging."

"I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'Well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self. I think that young men and women are so caught by the way they see themselves. Now mind you. When a larger society sees them as unattractive, as threats, as too black or too white or too poor or too fat or too thin or too sexual or too asexual, that's rough. But you can overcome that. The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself. If we don't have that we never grow, we never learn, and sure as hell we should never teach."

"I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh."

"My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return."

"Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between."

"There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth."

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

"Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good."

"Nothing can dim the light which shines from within."

"Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud."

"Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art."

"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet."

"When you learn, teach, when you get, give."

"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face."

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

"If you have only one smile in you, give it to the people you love. Don't be surly at home, then go out in the street and start grinning 'Good morning' at total strangers."

"I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life."

"Let's tell the truth to people. When people ask, 'How are you?' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know, however, that people will start avoiding you because, they, too, have knees that pain them and heads that hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way: If people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you."

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young."

"When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed."

"We need much less than we think we need."

"Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant."

"Be present in all things and thankful for all things."

"When we find someone who is brave, fun, intelligent, and loving, we have to thank the universe."

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

"I sustain myself with the love of family."