Young kids should be doing music that has shock value. They'll grow out of it.

A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.

Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion. Everything else is a distraction.

I ignored your aura but it grabbed me by the hand, like the moon pulled the tide, and the tide pulled the sand.

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.

You gotta get back to your essence, Use your gifts and share your presence, Don't count your dollars 'til you count your blessings.

Life without knowledge is death in disguise.

The beautiful thing about hip-hop is it's like an audio collage. You can take any form of music and do it in a hip-hop way and it'll be a hip-hop song. That's the only music you can do that with.

If lyrics sold then truth be told/I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z.

I'm at a loss for words. But even my loss is amplified.

You know, there's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.

Ever day you spend at work is a foundation for your future.

...it is in the very fundamentals of evil that one always condemns it when they see it but rationalizes it when they do it.

Discontent is want of self-discipline it is infirmity of will.

If you go out with a girl and they say she has a great personality, she's ugly. If they tell you a guy works hard, he can't play a lick. Same thing.

In the 1930s, there was a stretch where you could borrow more against the real estate than you could sell it for. I think that's what's going on in today's private-equity world.

A problem is often half-solved when it is clearly stated.

What ought a man be? Well, my short answer is 'himself'.

They were snobs or idiots or both...yet she was inexplicably crushed by their coldness.

Don't give me timing, give me time

But our idea is that the wolves should be fed and the sheep kept safe.