Whether a pretty woman grants or withholds her favors, she always likes to be asked for them.

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Fire and swords are slow engines of destruction, compared to the tongue of a Gossip.

People spend their lives in the service of their passions instead of employing their passions in the service of their lives.

Among all the diseases of the mind there is not one more epidemical or more pernicious than the love of flattery.

Vanity makes people ridiculous, pride odious, and ambition terrible.

There is no Pleasure like that of receiving Praise from the Praiseworthy

A lie is troublesome, and sets a man's invention upon the rack, and one trick needs a great many more to make it good.

A fool is in himself the object of pity, until he is flattered.

Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.

Caring and a sense of purpose evoke better performance than pressure and fear. The idea that only obsessive egomaniacs can produce breakthroughs is nonsense.

It was a voice that you felt you had to listen to—or you ignored at your peril.

Everybody wants to manage me; management is a touchy situation.

You treat anyone normally, and they'll treat you normally back.

There is so much power in being able to look comfortable in a conference room, and I’m not sure dudes in suits are used to seeing women do that.

In life, people will take you at your own reckoning.

You don't have to forget the past to start enjoying the present.

But when I record my next studio album, of course I'll do the lead vocals

Every job I've ever gotten has been an accident. All the jobs I actually go after, I don't get.

You can laugh at my behavior that will never bother me, say the devil is my savior, but I don't pay no heed.