You can make a mark across the night with the tip of an embered stick, and you can actually see it fixed in its finity. You can be absolutely sure of its treacherous impermanence. And that is all.

He's what he is, that's it. Maybe that makes him strong enough, being what he is.

We are the culture. All those people that are doing those dumb TV things and promoting hate…that’s the ‘counter’culture.

Man is certain of nothing but his ability to fail

McMurphy tied a chunk of meat to each end of a four-foot string, tossed it into the air, and sent two squawking birds wheeling off, "Till death do them part.

What a cheery atmosphere, don't you agree?

I'd give something to see that. Mostly, I'd just to look over the country around the gorge again, just to bring some of it clear in my mind again. I been away a long time.

I will be a sonofabitch if he ain't in here at eleven-thirty at night, fartin' around in the dark with a pair of scissors and a paper sack.

Ah, ah, ahhh ... first one gets mad, then one goes mad

I forget sometimes what laughter can do.

He's safe as long as he can laugh, he thinks, and it works pretty fair.

They’re out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.

“Waiting for the right time to get real in your relationships is a fool’s errand. There is no right time to have the conversation, ask the hard questions, say “I love you,” or take the time to truly listen. There is only right now.” 

“Her moment of courage teaches us all that it’s not the big moves that change everything—it’s the smallest ones in your everyday life that do.”

“Waiting until you are ready will not make it happen. The world doesn’t work that way.” 

“You may be afraid of finding out that you suck, like my daughter was. Let me tell you what really sucks: being older and regretting that you never went for it. Being 30 and realizing you let fear of what your friends thought keep you from ever really putting yourself out there when you were younger. Friends, by the way, who you never talk to anymore. Being 56 and realizing you should have divorced your spouse ten years ago. Being 45 and wishing you had had the courage to take on a project at work that you now realize would have changed the trajectory of your career. Or sitting in college classes earning a degree to please your parents when knowing in your heart that you want to be doing something else with your life. There is no right time. There is only right now. You get one life. This is it. And it’s not going to begin again. It’s up to you to push yourself to make the most of it and the time to do it is right now.” 

“The first and most important step is to stop saying you are fine. You are not fine. You need to quit pretending that you are, and state for the record what’s bothering you. There is a lot more in store for you than what you’ve got going on right now, and the first step to getting it is to stop pretending that everything is okay.” 

“some of our traits are more fixed and automatic, but many are “free traits” that we can adjust in order to advance a core project in our lives.”

“In all of modern history, no single invention has so perfectly captured the perverse power of the mind to defeat its own best intentions as the snooze button. Situated” 

“It’s not because things are difficult that we don’t dare. It’s because we don’t dare that things are difficult.” 

“It’s called “locus of control.” The more that you believe that you are in control of your life, your actions and your future, the happier and more successful you’ll be.” 

You can't control how you feel. But you can always choose how you act.” 

You must learn how to separate what you feel from the actions that you take.

“Change is hard. Logically, we know what we should do, but our feelings about doing it make our decision for us. How you feel in the moment is almost never aligned with your goals and dreams. If you only act when you feel like it, you will never get what you want.

“So I made myself a simple promise: If I knew that I should do something that could change me for the better, then I would use the Rule to push myself to do it, regardless of how I felt.” 

“Most of us don’t even realize how often we hesitate because we’ve done it so often that it’s become a habit.” 

“Either you run the day or the day runs you.” 

“Using the Rule strengthens your belief that you do have the ability to control your own fate—because you are proving it to yourself one push at a time.” 

“If you can get up on time, start your day powerfully, plan ahead, think about your goals, and focus on yourself, all before you get bogged down in your daily routine, then you will simply accomplish more. This is the first step to taking control of your life.” 

“That moment of hesitation is a killer. Hesitation sends a stress signal to your brain. It’s a red flag that signals something’s wrong—and your brain goes into protection mode. This is how we are wired to fail. Think about this for a minute.” 

“You aren’t supposed to be stuck. You are supposed to be doing something amazing with your life.” 

It's a smile, it's a kiss, it's a sip of wine ... it's summertime!

My mind is constantly going. For me to completely relax, I gotta get rid of my cell phone.

Football taught me how hard you had to work to achieve something.

I'm like a shark. I've got to be constantly moving.

I don't think I ever feel sexy. I don't think that's for me to decide, if I'm sexy or not.

I'll admit I'm a workaholic.

I was standing onstage last year, and I felt like I wanted to be somewhere else. No matter how many people were out there, it all just felt like a blank sheet of paper.

The last couple of years I've been on an empty tank. And that's gotta change.

I grew up in east Tennessee, and everybody knew everybody's business.

People who can't kiss had everything given to them.

It sounds like a cliche, but it... you do sing about what you know about. And I grew up in a small town, and I grew up in a place where your whole world revolved around friends, family, school, and church, and sports.

First and foremost, I consider myself a songwriter.

I have 120 employees on the road every day, and about 30 other employees off the road.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm a helluva kisser.

I had a notepad and I wrote down 30 things to make myself better just off the top of my head, and the next day I started to do that.

Social topics may hit too close to home for people, but then again, if you pull a heartstring, then that's what country music is. It's not just songs about getting drunk and leaving your girl.

I want there to be a level of respect between everybody.

There's this idea that somebody's job could be more important than somebody else's, and to me, that's not true.

I'm so hands-on, from the color of my tour bus to what I eat for dinner at 5 or the way the lights are hung.