It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.

I don’t believe we are supposed to go through life defeated and not having enough money to pay our bills or send our kids to college.

A mother takes twenty years to make a man of her boy, and another woman makes a fool of him in twenty minutes.

It’s very difficult to regulate yourself, and if you learn to do that, well, it starts to spill over.

I identify myself as a hustler since I was a young kid.

A lot of artists fail when they try to act, and they flop. So when I get into acting, it’s going to be to do it well, something good, something of quality. I want people to say, ‚Wow, that movie‘ – or that show or whatever – ‚turned out really well.‘

I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!

For a person who grew up in the ’30s and ’40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, ‚Here I am, read me.‘ Over time I have learned I am at my best around books.

The only way to get love is to be lovable. It’s very irritating if you have a lot of money. You’d like to think you could write a check: ‚I’ll buy a million dollars‘ worth of love.‘ But it doesn’t work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.

I’m definitely gaining new fans, and that’s the key of any success… gain more love.

Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.

The most happy man is he who knows how to bring into relation the end and beginning of his life.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.

If you’re embarrassed because you have some notion about how men are supposed to behave, and it doesn’t include weeping, then you have some personal work to do.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

The only real security that a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability.

I’m convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaking to people rather than walking by them like they’re stones that don’t matter. As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late to do some good.

Time is the only critic without ambition.

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

One might say that our words are a movie screen that reveals what we have been thinking and the attitudes we have.

Action may not bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.

I am invariably late for appointments – sometimes as much as two hours. I’ve tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

If you read enough biography and history, you learn how people have dealt successfully or unsuccessfully with similar situations or patterns in the past. It doesn’t give you a template of answers, but it does help you refine the questions you have to ask yourself.

I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

The one thing that I keep learning over and over again is that I don’t know nothing. I mean, that’s my life lesson.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

Whenever you’re going through a tough time, generally, you become more compassionate, you become softer, you become more thoughtful, kinder. These are all spiritual qualities that will help you to align yourself with God and God consciousness rather than with a split fear-based consciousness.

The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it.

I don’t know who I touch and who I don’t. I work hard trying to make people laugh. I try to do the kind of stuff that made me laugh growing up. I don’t have any secrets. I don’t know the reasons I’ve been so well received.

See, winners embrace hard work.

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing. So if I’m playing basketball, if I’m taking the SATs, like, there’s a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it’s the same thing.

We came up with TDE. As competitive as rap is, and as much as we’re trying to exceed the standards we set for ourselves, we take their wins as our wins, too.

Passions are the gales of life.

It’s the philosophies of being an athlete that carry me today.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.

I’m chasing perfection.

Many receive advice, only the wise profit from it.

I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.