Oprah Winfrey quotes:

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough.

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.

Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.

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

My first day in Chicago, September 4, 1983. I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here.

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

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness.

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

What material success does is provide you with the ability to concentrate on other things that really matter. And that is being able to make a difference, not only in your own life, but in other people's lives.

You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.

If you want to accomplish the goals of your life, you have to begin with the spirit.

The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.

When I look into the future, it's so bright it burns my eyes.

I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.

If you come to fame not understanding who you are, it will define who you are.

The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.

It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are - not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within - that you can begin to take control.

Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.

The struggle of my life created empathy - I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.

What I know is, is that if you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.

It does not matter how you came into the world, what matters is that you are here.

I have a lot of things to prove to myself. One is that I can live my life fearlessly.

I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity.

So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.

What God intended for you goes far beyond anything you can imagine.

I don't think you ever stop giving. I really don't. I think it's an on-going process. And it's not just about being able to write a check. It's being able to touch somebody's life.

I remember a specific moment, watching my grandmother hang the clothes on the line, and her saying to me, 'you are going to have to learn to do this,' and me being in that space of awareness and knowing that my life would not be the same as my grandmother's life.

Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you I the best place for the next moment.

Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.

My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not.

I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.

I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.

You CAN have it all. You just can't have it all at once.

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

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it."

You can only be as happy as your saddest child."

If all this happened to you what paradigm might you develop? How might that paradigm affect you in terms of your life from that point on? What does this tell you about Abe? There are no failures, only lessons to be learned.

The reason I gained so much weight in the first place and the reason I had such a sorry history of abusive relationships with men was I just needed approval so much. I needed everyone to like me, because I didn't like myself much.

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.

Turn your wounds into wisdom.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that's how I operate my life.

Alone time is when I distance myself from the voices of the world so I can hear my own.

When you learn, teach. When you get, give. Maya Angelou taught me that.

What stands out to me most about Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken; it's how she lived her life. She moved through the world with unshakable calm, confidence and a fierce grace.

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 try to view the challenges in my life not as annoyances, but as confirmations of fortitude.

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

People never fail to amaze me. They face the unimaginable with a shot of grace and a rush of adrenaline; they steel their nerves; they summon their cool or anger or faith or whatever it takes to pull them through, and they go on to live another day.

An nice lady in the back...asked what I thought about how we begin to move forward. I think it is up to each individual, which then moves to your family, which moves to your community. Each person, in their own life, let your life be a light for peace, for justice, for all that is good. Just let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.

You become what you believe. And to believe that you are created by the power that's greater than yourself means anything is possible.

I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier.

Here's the gift of gratitude: In order to feel it, your ego has to take a backseat. What shows up in its place is greater compassion and understanding. Instead of being frustrated, you choose appreciation. And the more grateful you become, the more you have to be grateful for.

Even in bad times, always say thank you. Whatever you are going through, God is using you to get through. God has already put a rainbow in the cloud.

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

Some women have a weakness for shoes... I can go barefoot if necessary. I have a weakness for books.

If you neglect to recharge a battery, it dies. And if you run full speed ahead without stopping for water, you lose momentum to finish the race.

What I know for sure is this: The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal for this year is, you can get there - as long as you're willing to be honest with yourself about the preparation and work involved. There are no back doors, no free rides. There's just you, this moment, and a choice.

Dare to be different. Be a pioneer. Be a leader. Be the kind of woman who in the face of adversity will continue to embrace life and walk fearlessly toward the challenge.

What matters is how you feel inside, because feeling beautiful on the inside is key to looking good.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more.

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

Getting older is the best thing that ever happened to me. I wake up every morning rejoicing that I'm still here with an opportunity to begin again and be better

You face the biggest challenge of all: to have the courage to seek your big dream regardless of what anyone says. You are the only person alive who can see your big picture and even you can't see it all.

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

I finally realized that being grateful to my body was key to giving more love to myself.

I interviewed - no - had lunch with Harper Lee several years ago, trying to convince Harper Lee to do "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the book club. She wouldn't do it. She said, "Honey, I said everything I wanted to say."

I tried documentaries.It wasn't the time for me. I was going to try to do the same thing, I did make a valiant attempt but it did not work - to do the same thing with documentaries that we had done with the book club [in 2011]. The zeitgeist wasn't ready. It just wasn't ready.

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.

I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint - and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.

There's a group of 12 oak trees on my property in California that I call 'my disciples.' Their branches form a canopy over the ground, and I sit underneath them for inspiration.

These French-style caramels are handmade in California. It's always hard to give them away!

I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.

It's much easier for me to make major life, multi-million dollar decisions, than it is to decide on a carpet for my front porch. That's the truth.

Don't put a ceiling on yourself.

Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand.

Right now you are one choice away from a new beginning.

If I had kids, my kids would hate me ... They would have ended up on the equivalent of the Oprah show talking about me; because something in my life would have had to suffer and it would've probably been them.

I urge you to pursue preserving your personal history to allow your children and grandchildren to know who you were as a child and what your hopes and dreams were.

You are always walking in the direction of either love or fear. Choose wisely.

As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to decide what is best for you - the first time around.

I am not in the closet. I am not coming out of the closet. I am not gay.

I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it

Not like I need an excuse to enjoy a Moscow mule, but this tray and six-mug set, handmade in Mexico with hammered recycled copper, makes cocktail hour extra special.

I wasn't the cutest or the most talented, but I could get through the question-and-answer period.

Every day brings a chance for you to draw in a breath, kick off your shoes, and dance.

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

How do I define success? Let me tell you, money's pretty nice. But having a lot of money does not automatically make you a successful person. What you want is money and meaning. You want your work to be meaningful, because meaning is what brings the real richness to your life.

All of us need a vision for our lives, and even as we work to achieve that vision, we must surrender to the power that is greater than we know. It's one of the defining principles of my life that I love to share: God can dream a bigger dream for you than you could ever dream for yourself.

A lesson will keep repeating itself until it is learned. Life first will send the lesson to you in the size of a pebble; if you ignore the pebble, then life will send you a brick; if you ignore the brick, life will send you a brick wall; if you ignore the brick wall, life will send you a demolition truck.

I always knew I was destined for greatness.

Lessons often come dressed up as detours and roadblocks

The roses, the lovely notes, the dining and dancing are all welcome and splendid. But when the Godiva is gone, the gift of real love is having someone who'll go the distance with you. Someone who, when the wedding day limo breaks down, is willing to share a seat on the bus.

There's a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he's African American. There's no question about that and it's the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody's thinking it.

Let excellence be your brand... When you are excellent, you become unforgettable. Doing the right thing, even when nobody knows you're doing the right thing will always bring the right thing to you.

Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.

Doubt means don't. Don't move. Don't answer. Don't rush forward.

I believe in the power that not only allows the sun to rise but turns seeds into flowers and dreams into realities.

What has made me successful is the ability to surrender my plans, dreams and goals to a power that's greater than other people and greater than myself.

Duct tape is like the force. It has a light side, and it holds the world together.

You are responsible for your life. You can't keep blaming somebody else for your dysfunction. Life is really about moving on.

I don't know what kind of egomaniac is sitting at home thinking about the impact they have had on the culture. It's not something I actually think about until it comes up.

The thrill is to keep envisioning what can be.

The essential question is not, "How busy are you?" but "What are you busy at?"

There were no ugly people in Ethiopia

I trust that everything happens for a reason, even if we are not wise enough to see it.

You will be wounded many times in your life. You'll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I have learned that failure is really God's way of saying, "Excuse me, you're moving in the wrong direction." It's just an experience, just an experience.

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

Purpose is the thread that connects the dots to everything you do that leads you to an extraordinary life.

Many things in life inspire philanthropy, such as your faith in humanity and your belief in the human spirit to overcome.

The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.

Time isn't the enemy. Fear of change is. Accept that nothing lasts forever and you'll start to appreciate the advantages of whatever age you are now.

If it doesn't feel right, don't do it. That is the lesson, and that lesson alone will save you a lot of grief.

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