In England, when an athlete gets to the top, we do our best to destroy him.

The bat is not a toy, it’s a weapon. It gives me everything in life, which helps me to do everything on the field.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

I had a lot of resistance, and not just to fame. I was always conscious of not changing.

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

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

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

What ‚multiculturalism‘ boils down to is that you can praise any culture in the world except Western culture – and you cannot blame any culture in the world except Western culture.

When I came up to bat with three men on and two outs in the ninth, I looked in the other team’s dugout and they were already in street clothes.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

If you look at any Muslim society and you make a scale of how developed they are, and how successful the economy is, it’s a straight line. It depends on how much they emancipate their women.

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.

I sang a song at my sister’s wedding. My mother forced me into that, too. But that one felt all right.

Bring them on.

As an athlete, you’d better laugh at yourself when you slip in the mud.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

I think that success is having fun.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

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

All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they’ll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad’s restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you.

The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.

I have really been disillusioned with soccer in England.

To me, being the best means proving it in different countries and championships.

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‚What’s in it for me?‘

I’ve had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, ‚Your music sucks, you don’t know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don’t know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.‘

The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down.

I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage. We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.

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

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

I don’t invest in ideas because ideas are a dime a dozen. I could steal the idea pretty quickly.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets.

I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing. So if I’m playing basketball, if I’m taking the SATs, like, there’s a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it’s the same thing.

Going to college offered me the chance to play football for four more years.

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

Getting recognized is insane. It just blows my mind. Like, someone who you don’t know at all can just be like, ‚Oh my God – are you Billie?‘

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

Football is unconditional love.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

I’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

It’s not ‚can‘; it’s ‚will.‘ You have to will things into fruition.