He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

You can’t put your feet on the ground until you’ve touched the sky.

Desire is the very essence of man.

I can honestly say, after talking about my mom passing away, I got the biggest weight off of my chest. Comedy is my therapy. That’s how I deal with my problems, my personal battles. I talk about it. I give it to my fans. When they laugh at it, it’s a release, for lack of a better word.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

Just like every person who works for Dortmund is a fan of the club, it was the same at Mainz. When I was a player there, we had 800 supporters on rainy Saturday afternoons, and if we died, no one would notice or come to our funeral. But we loved the club, and we have this same feeling at Dortmund.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

If you’re in this business and you are scared, then you better do something else.

If you have the ability to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and start over, you come out stronger because you learn from whatever mistakes you made.

Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.

A man who has no office to go, to I don’t care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception.

If four things are followed – having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance – then anything can be achieved.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

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.

Every time I get in the McLaren I feel more comfortable, my confidence increases and I feel more at home with the team.

You have to stay faithful to what you’re working on.

All cruelty springs from weakness.

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

State formation has been a brutal project, with many hideous consequences. But the results exist, and their pernicious aspects should be overcome.

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.

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

Americans never quit.

Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don’t complain.

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

When the players go home, I can’t tell them what to do, so you need to create an atmosphere of trust. I don’t want to think, ‚What are they doing now? Do I need to call them?‘

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

There is nothing in the world so much admired as a man who knows how to bear unhappiness with courage.

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

I was very worried about my mother, growing up – a lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.

I will not be triumphed over.

I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. There were dishes in the sink. It started off with doing small house chores. I saw that the yard needed to be mowed. So instead of being told it needed to be mowed, I would mow it.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

A good day is one where I can not just read a book, but write a review of it. Maybe today I’ll be able to do that. I get for some reason somewhat stronger when the sun starts to go down. Dusk is a good time for me. I’m crepuscular.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

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

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

The most intense conflicts, if overcome, leave behind a sense of security and calm that is not easily disturbed. It is just these intense conflicts and their conflagration which are needed to produce valuable and lasting results.

Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

Never leave a rhinestone unturned.