Of course, my faith has a lot to do with being able to be public without being a public nuisance.

I believe the artist has an obligation to society.

I think celebrities have an obligation to the public to not just sing or act.

Become the change you want to see—those are words I live by. Instead of belittling, uplift.

I want to live my life so my aura, when it leaves, is very bright.

When you make loving others the story of your life, there's never a final chapter, because the legacy continues. You lend your light to one person, and he or she shines it on another and another and another.

You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.

The lesson of a life can never be its own. Only the witness has power to take its measure. It is lived for the other only.

Remember as you go about your day that you may be the only Jesus some of your friends, neighbors, and family will ever see.

A song is a light we shine on others, not a light we shine on us.

The only gift is a portion of thyself.... the poet brings his poem... the farmer, corn... the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing. This is right and pleasing, for it restores society in so far to its primary basis, when a man's biography is conveyed in his gift... But it is a cold, lifeless business, when you go to the shops to buy me something which does not represent your life and talent, but a goldsmith's.

If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people — a black people — who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization." This is our challenge and our overwhelming responsibility.