Only the educated are free.
Either you run the day or the day runs you.
The dog that trots about finds a bone.
Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
After a storm comes a calm.
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.
Know or listen to those who know.
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.