To make an embarrassing admission, I like video games. That’s what got me into software engineering when I was a kid. I wanted to make money so I could buy a better computer to play better video games – nothing like saving the world.

Ego is only fine when it is working for your motivation.

As a father, I always want my son to be perfect. When he was young, I tried to train him in martial arts, but he said, ‚I don’t want to become like Bruce Lee’s son, with everybody telling me how good my father was.‘ I just think my son is too lazy.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

I think it’s quite great to set yourself a big challenge, and then you’ve got another reason for keeping fit.

If you choose to do something, attack it. You can hate me, but there’s one thing you can’t say about me – that I didn’t attack it.

One thing that I find very unmotivating is the kind of Plan B argument: when Earth gets destroyed, you want to be somewhere else. That doesn’t work for me. We have sent robotic probes now to every place in the solar system, and this is the best one.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

Fresh activity is the only means of overcoming adversity.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

As is the case with most people in this game, I am driven by financial motives and creative motives; the question I had to answer is which motive I will give priority to?

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

Deficiency motivation doesn’t work. It will lead to a life-long pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are.

The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

Anytime I feel lost, I pull out a map and stare. I stare until I have reminded myself that life is a giant adventure, so much to do, to see.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

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

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if – the probable outcome is failure.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

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

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

Don’t be dependent. At all. Ever. Period.

I like working. That’s when I’m feeling my best. And the people around me know that. My wife knows that.

Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

We are not here to curse the darkness, but to light the candle that can guide us thru that darkness to a safe and sane future.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, ‚What should I do?‘ And I say: ‚Act. Do something.‘ Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

Love is the answer to everything. It’s the only reason to do anything. If you don’t write stories you love, you’ll never make it. If you don’t write stories that other people love, you’ll never make it.

I’m not very ambitious at all.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

Women have to summon up courage to fulfill dormant dreams.

I didn’t work hard to sit down and not work.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

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