I don’t feel pressure in a negative way. I like pressure. I feel excitement and calm at the same time. No pressure, no diamonds. I want pressure: pressure creates drama, creates emotion.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

We can take a ‚It was hard to get there.‘ But we ain’t taking no loss. We’re going to win.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

In this knowledge-worker age, it’s now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs – so the pressure to do well is really high.

Winners embrace hard work. They love the discipline of it, the trade-off they’re making to win. Losers, on the other hand, see it as punishment. And that’s the difference.

Human development thus far has been fueled and guided by the feeling that things could be, and are probably going to be, better.

I really hope someday in Hollywood, some producer or director will hire me only to do drama.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

Really, you don’t lose until you stop trying.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Affirmation without discipline is the beginning of delusion.

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

It behooves every man to remember that the work of the critic is of altogether secondary importance, and that, in the end, progress is accomplished by the man who does things.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting.

If a subject excites us, if it stirs our deepest curiosity, or if we have to learn because the stakes are high, we pay much more attention. What we absorb sinks in.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

This industry has been really good to me. It’s been a great life. I’m not through yet. I’m ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

Be not simply good – be good for something.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

If my businesses or my investments are not profitable, then I don’t eat. And I like to eat.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.

To keep the business going, you gotta keep it boomin‘.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

You must reward the kind of behavior that you want.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

Fear is a spirit that produces a feeling.

Many people feel so pressured by the expectations of others that it causes them to be frustrated, miserable and confused about what they should do. But there is a way to live a simple, joy-filled, peaceful life, and the key is learning how to be led by the Holy Spirit, not the traditions or expectations of man.

I never – you know also one of the things that would save me for a man my age, it was not that easy to lose that much weight and fall down and look like something draped.

The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can’t find them, make them.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

An unused life is an early death.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.

Enemies are so stimulating.

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

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.