“Old age and treachery can always overcome youth and skill.”

The successful among us delay gratification. The successful among us bargain with the future.

You deserve some respect. You are important to other people, as much as to yourself. You have some vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world.

It’s a luxury to pursue what makes you happy; it’s a moral obligation to pursue what you find meaningful.

You should not overlook the guidelines of your culture. Life is short, and you don’t have time to figure everything out on your own. The wisdom of the past was hard-earned, and your dead ancestors may have something useful to tell you.

Nietzsche said that a man’s worth was determined by how much truth he could tolerate.

The secret to your existence is right in front of you. It manifests itself as all those things you know you should do but are avoiding.

Much of happiness is hope, no matter how deep the underworld in which that hope was conceived.

You don’t get to choose not to pay a price, you only get to choose which price you pay.

Sometimes it seems the only people willing to give advice in a realistic society are those with the least to offer.

Alongside our wish to be free of rules, we all search for structure.

There’s a worthy and noble ambition: strength in the face of adversity. That is very different from the wish for a life free of trouble.

We are increasingly falling prey to the desperation of meaninglessness.

That the soul of the individual eternally hungers for the heroism of genuine being.

The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability, rather than status and power. The status you can lose. You carry character with you wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity.

You should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are.

We require routine and tradition. That’s order. Order can become excessive, and that’s not good, but chaos can swamp us, so we drown – and that is also not good. We need to stay on the straight and narrow path.

In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.

I got a lot of experience for my age. Some artists might take a line or two from a bunch of songs and snip it together and make something, but everything I say I do.

I am only 33, I’ve got a lot to do. This is the first half of my career. I’m looking forward to the future and I’m proud about the past.

Save your money. You’re going to need twice as much money in your old age as you think.

The best research for playing a drunk is being a British actor for 20 years.

I had my first kiss when I was 11, but I think I’ve blocked it out of my mind because it was so bad. I’m not even sure it counts as a kiss.

A performer learns with experience and with age. I did not know the future when I left home and started out to begin my career: I started qawaali; then I met Peter Gabriel and was exposed to a lot of new ideas.

I got a toy keyboard when I was around like five or six.