H. Jackson Brown Jr. Quotes

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

I am so enriched because so much has happened in my life. The way I can express myself is because of the life I have led. It's only when you experience life can you emote it.

I've got my whole life. There's a lifetime of experience, a lifetime of experiencing the road and the music and different players. It makes me a richer human being. I have a greater source of information to tap into, a wealth of life.

Whether it's in the right way or sometimes the wrong way, you learn about life and its lessons.

You need to live life to be able to have something to draw from.

The words come from here. From memories, from dreams, from people I've known. I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

You go through life and learn valuable lessons.

And the most important thing isn't the trophies, it's the experiences, what you lived, what's here in your heart, what you know, what you live. No one can ever steal that from you.

I've lived almost, like, four completely different lives. (Stripping) was just one section - one little small section, if that - but it was a very interesting and turbulent but kind of wild ride and I'm not ashamed of it all. I think it's hilarious and I learned a lot about human nature.

The most human thing about anyone is a thing he learns and ... and earns. It's a thing he can't have when he's very young; if he gets it at all, he gets it after a long search and a deep conviction. After that it's truly part of him as long as he lives.

Your life is a learning process - you can only become wiser from learning. Sometimes you might have to attract making a painful mistake to learn something important, but after the mistake you have far greater wisdom. Wisdom cannot be bought with money - it can only be acquired through living life. With wisdom comes strength, courage, knowing, and an ever-increasing peace.

I'm really glad that I made a lot of mistakes, poorly chose my friends throughout my twenties, and didn't have a rocket trajectory that set me on one path without making any mistakes or having any setbacks. The older I get, the more I realize that it's all of these failed, horrible things from my past, and the stories that they generated, that are the things I will draw on for the rest of my life.

What a man knows at fifty that he did not know at twenty is, for the most part, incommunicable.

People say, 'What if your name was Niki Smith?' Well, if Niki Smith lived the life I've lived, it would have great bearing.

One of the ways you learn about life is to associate with people.

Experience is what you have after you've forgotten her name.

Even youngish men can acquire wisdom as time goes by.

Everything I have experienced in my life helps form who I am today, and I would not change or forget any of it.

Through therapy and a lot of thinking and writing my memoirs, I've been able to use my life as a lesson.

I had more energy at 50. On the other hand, at 75, I've probably got a little more wisdom and good judgment than I had at 50 because I've got more experience. But I haven't really changed. I'm still driven by the same philosophy.

As I experience life and go through things, that's what I write about.

The roles that have come into my life have taught me - and in that time period maybe I didn't even know it, but whatever came up or whatever it is that you have to express at that time, has benefitted me in a particular way.

I wouldn't trade the experiences I've had over the past 36 years for anything.

You grow up a lot on set, but it doesn't change you.

When I turned 45, I lay in bed reflecting on all life had taught me. My soul sprang a leak and ideas flowed out. My pen simply caught them and set the words on paper. I typed them up and turned them into a newspaper column of the 45 lessons life taught me. When I hit 50, I added five more lessons and the paper ran the column again.