Laurie Anderson Quotes

Most of us actually stifle enough good impulses during the course of a day to change the current of our lives.

Anyone can identify with those moments in life where circumstances or people inform us that we've strayed from the path of our better nature and intentions. We know what that's like, and we resist it - so as not to feel like we're bad people.

The problem with self-improvement is knowing when to quit.

One of the widest gaps in human experience is the gap between what we say we want to be and our willingness to discipline ourselves to get there.

My mom says I was an introvert. I never saw myself that way, but I was always focused. I didn't spend a lot of time doing things that I didn't think would make me great.

One of my worst fears is being a self-indulgent person.

Each year one vicious habit discarded, in time might make the worst of us good.

In the matter of learning, the difference between the earnest and the careless student stands out clearly. The same holds true in the mastering of passion and the weaknesses to which our nature is subject, as in the acquiring of virtue.

You get the best out of others when you get the best out of yourself.

It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.

This unusual and highly successful species spends a great deal of time examining his higher motives and an equal amount of time ignoring his fundamental ones.

We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

I have learned to watch myself and give myself constructive criticism. Although I have to cover my face and peek sometimes!

It is much easier to find fault with others, than to be faultless ourselves.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.

The preacher's sharpest and strongest preaching should be to himself. His most difficult, delicate, laborious, and thorough work must be with himself.

You can't please everybody all the time, but I think for the most part we tend to maintain a healthy level of self-reference to kind of make sure we continue to push things forward.

I do things because I enjoy it. That used to be my downfall, but now it's the upside.

Patience is a virtue, and I'm learning patience. It's a tough lesson.

You can never control other people. You can only control yourself. I have definitely learned that.

I don't think I have discipline when it comes to anything.

People need to be edited; life needs to be edited. I need to be edited.

The best way to break a bad habit is to drop it.

The biggest obstacle to people becoming better is that you have to really want to be a good person in order to be a better person, and most people would rather be other things.

I'd prefer to be good, but I'm not always. I struggle.