"The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds."

"Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice."

"Our knowledge is a receding mirage in an expanding desert of ignorance."

"It may be true that you can't fool all the people all the time, but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country."

"It is only in his music, which Americans are able to admire because a protective sentimentality limits their understanding of it, that the Negro in America has been able to tell his story."

"I sure saw a lot of kids that I'm sure didn't know a lot about us, or we were definitely new to them. The kids who came up to me afterward, we'd talk about music, sign a lot of autographs. So I'm sure we made a lot of new fans."

"I would love to continue in music, with writing... but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don't need to be blonde when I'm 60!"

"The art of living is discovering that every step forward is a victory over stagnation."