The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

We only consult the ear because the heart is wanting.

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.

Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.

Ethics and power are separate.

Whether you want to go into music, whether you want to be a lawyer, whether you want to be President of the United States, the bottom line for all of you is that you have got to get your education.

In order to become prosperous, a person must initially work very hard, so he or she has to sacrifice a lot of leisure time.

Success isn’t supposed to happen, no matter how hard you work. There’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. There’s nothing set in stone.

You must become an old man in good time if you wish to be an old man long.

The career of a sage is of two kinds: He is either honored by all in the world, Like a flower waving its head, Or else he disappears into the silent forest.

Don’t part with your illusions. When they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

I don’t think you get successful to brag and throw what you have in the world’s face. That’s all private.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

A leader who doesn’t hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

To be is to do.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty.

America is another name for opportunity.

Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.

How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.

States are not moral agents.

My mother’s love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, her intelligence reflected in my daughters.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

It’s very hard to live with yourself if you don’t stick with your moral code.

If you want someone to say, ‚She’s so sweet, and she’s so cute, and, honey, point your foot,‘ that’s not my school. You can go to the YMCA and have a nobody teach your kid if that’s what you want to hear.

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

The richest people in the world look for and build networks; everyone else looks for work.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

Justice… is a kind of compact not to harm or be harmed.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

I always invest my own money in the companies that I create. I don’t believe in the whole thing of just using other people’s money. I don’t think that’s right. I’m not going to ask other people to invest in something if I’m not prepared to do so myself.

To say that authority, whether secular or religious, supplies no ground for morality is not to deny the obvious fact that it supplies a sanction.

Luck marches with those who give their very best.

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past, but by the responsibility for our future.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.

In America the young are always ready to give to those who are older than themselves the full benefits of their inexperience.