Quotes from Oprah Winfrey

You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.

I became so frustrated with visiting inner-city schools (in America) that I just stopped going. The sense that you need to learn just isn't there. If you ask the kids what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers. In South Africa, they don't ask for money or toys. They ask for uniforms so they can go to school.

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'Thank you,' it will be enough." —Meister Eckhart

I've learned that you can't have everything and do everything at the same time.

Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it.

Live your best life!

I was once afraid of people saying, "Who does she think she is?" Now I have the courage to stand and say, "This is who I am.

Always take a stand for yourself, your values. You're defined by what you stand for

You did the best you could, the best you knew how at the time. It was something like that. From Oprah on an Oprah show. Then I believe my quote above was from Maya Angelou on the Oprah show, not Oprah herself. I had heard it before but it was on Oprah's show again 1-7-09 and she said Maya had said it.

I choose to rise up out of that storm and see that in moments of desperation, fear, and helplessness, each of us can be a rainbow of hope, doing what we can to extend ourselves in kindness and grace to one another. And I know for sure that there is no them - there's only us.

When you know better...You do better.

I will tell you that there have been no failures in my life. I don't want to sound like some metaphysical queen,but there have been no failures. There have been some tremendous lessons.

When I didn't have friends, I had books.

The essential question is not, How busy are you?' but 'What are you busy at?' 'Are you doing what fulfills you?

Life is about growth and change. When you are no longer doing that — that is your whisper; that is your whisper that you are supposed to do something else.

Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.

Wherever you are in your journey, I hope you, too, will keep encountering challenges. It is a blessing to be able to survive them, to be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other—to be in a position to make the climb up life's mountain, knowing that the summit still lies ahead. And every experience is a valuable teacher.

What I know for sure is that what you give comes back to you.

Even as a kid, my memories are of books taking me out of myself.

What other people label or might try to call failure, I have learned is just God's way of pointing you in a new direction

Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe

Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and there discovered was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.

Follow your feelings. If it feels right, move forward. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.

Devote today to something so daring even you can't believe you're doing it.