"I don't get angry very often. I lose my temper rarely. And when I do, there's always a legitimate cause. Normally I have a great lightness of being. I take things in a very happy, amused way"

"Try to be happy in this present moment, and put not off being so to a time to come, as though that time should be of another make from this which has already come and is ours"

"No man is happy who does not think himself so"

"Great effort from great motives is the best definition of a happy life"

"There is only one person who could ever make you happy, and that person is you"

"Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day"

"We worked very hard to make the lyrics suit the music. I can't, like Elton John, for example, compose by lyrics. Elton has a great talent for that. Whatever you give him, including your questions, he composes in half an hour and makes a great song out of it"

"I said when I came into office that I don't want to be a great leader; I want to be a good democrat"

"Happy is the person who knows what to remember of the past, what to enjoy in the present, and what to plan for in the future"

"It is a useless life that is not consecrated to a great ideal. It is like a stone wasted on the field without becoming a part of any edifice"