Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

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.

Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.

I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

I break ground. I trailblaze.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

One ought never to turn one’s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

I don’t expect to live forever, but I do intend to hang on as long as possible.

I think every entertainer’s had nights when things go wrong. I mean you can’t remember everything all the time, and especially if you’re having hard times personally, things going on that you – you know, and then people make it worse. And that makes you feel worse.

The best workers, like the happiest livers, look upon their work as a kind of game: the harder they play the more enjoyable it becomes.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.

I think my vice would be outdoing myself.

It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.

My dad used to have an expression – ‚It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.‘

My drive is other people’s success.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Success is the child of audacity.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.

Things won are done, joy’s soul lies in the doing.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

The only way you gain mental toughness is to do things you’re not happy doing. If you continue doing things that you’re satisfied and make you happy, you’re not getting stronger. You’re staying where you’re at. Either you’re getting better, or you’re getting worse. You’re not staying the same.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

The one way to get me to work my hardest was to doubt me.

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

‚Victory‘ is like, you won, so the question is, what? What did you win? I think that the songs go into that. It’s just about reaching a place in myself.

It is any day better to stand erect with a broken and bandaged head then to crawl on one’s belly, in order to be able to save one’s head.

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

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

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.

Nothing succeeds like success. Get a little success, and then just get a little more.

I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shakespeare, all those. The stilted formalism, like chewing cardboard.

Well I think a lot of times we’re putting things off and I’m going to do it later. I’m going to break this bad habit or I’m going to pursue this dream or I’m going to treat my spouse better.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

In testing, you make a mistake, you just say ‚OK we’ll have another go‘ instead of it being the only chance you get.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

What really motivates people at Facebook is building something that’s worthwhile, that they’re going to be proud to show to friends and family.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.