“We think these big people are very happy, but the truth is they are worse than us. We are just worried about one thing – hunger; they have a thousand worries.”

Secrets of the past! Who does not wish to keep the past locked in a cage like a ferocious beast? The rich are sleepless for fear of thieves. The respectable have to guard their reputations in the same way.

If brothers don’t help each other in times of need, how do you think life will ever go on?

Parents are one’s companions in life but not partakers of one’s karma.

If there were a being in the world whose eyes could look into other people’s hearts, very few men or women would be able to face up to it.

Trust is the first step to love.

Like timidity, bravery is also contagious.

The world assumes that we are very happy with high mansions, fine carriages, servants and attendants, huge investments, and concubines. But he who is without the honor and strength of the soul can be anything but happy.

My life is simple and rough.

If someone ensures us two square meals a day, we will sing and pray all our waking hours. If one has to hoe sugarcane all day, devotion to God vanishes like smoke.

The first condition of marriage between a man and a woman is that both must belong to each other totally.

Wealth and compassion are opposites.

What people think in their heart gets out, no matter how much they try to hide it.

I will not call that person happy who knows no rest because of his enemies, who is the butt of fun by all and for whom no one has any empathy, who is as if held on a leash by others, who has lost himself in hedonistic pursuits, who preys on those weaker to him and wags his tail for his superiors.

We all have to die some day. Not very many immortals have shown up in this world.

Illness and problems are the specialties of life. But the death of a child is a cause of mental agony which can be overcome if one concedes this world to be a stage or stadium wherein praiseworthy are those who are not proud of their achievement and those who do not cry at their defeat.

As long as the shackles of wealth and property bind us, we will remain accursed forever and never attain the altar of humanity, which is life’s ultimate goal.

I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‘One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.’ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

I had a babysitter when I was 12 or younger. I had a big crush on her.

Coming from a small town it was tough to dream big. When I grew up in a small town in Georgia, my biggest dream was one day to be able to go to Atlanta.

I think it’s fun to look at people with big diamonds.

Then as the years went on and my listening became more deliberate, I would climb up on an arm of our big sofa to get my ear closer to the wireless speaker.

Cats on the bandstand, give them each a big hand, anyone who sweats like that must be all right.

The result, I think, is pretty interesting … we don’t expect to make a fortune at it or ever be popular or famous or worshipped or hit The Ed Sullivan Show or the circuses or the big top.

I wasted a lot of my talent in the ’90s because the money was so big, and I was making so much money,