Nothing’s ever easy as long as you go on living.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

Black people in America, people from the struggle, immigrants, it’s no generational wealth that we are attached to, so we are tasked to create – in one generation – closing the gap. That’s why we so Doomsday about getting to the check: ‚cause it’s life or death for real.

Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.

Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly. Whether they will be of use to him is conditioned by survival. Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‚good,‘ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‚Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.‘

I’ve had two cancer bouts in my years on the Court, and the first one, Justice O’Connor told me, ‚Now, you do the chemotherapy on Friday because you’ll get over it during the weekend and you can be back in court on Monday.‘

I stayed true to my dreams and, eventually, they came true.

I don’t like looking back. I’m always constantly looking forward. I’m not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I’m too busy looking for the next cow.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

If you have to stand and fight, you train yourself so that you’re able to do it.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

Look at a book. A book is the right size to be a book. They’re solar-powered. If you drop them, they keep on being a book. You can find your place in microseconds. Books are really good at being books, and no matter what happens, books will survive.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

My reputation grows with every failure.

The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake, we will show the world that we will pass the test.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

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.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

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.

There are alway going to be bad things. But you can write it down and make a song out of it.

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

I pity the fool who just gives up.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.

Love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they’re not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can ‚cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.

It’s a rule to give all, and it can make the difference if you work more. If you don’t have to give all, and you still win, what’s this?

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

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

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’m committed to the fight game.

Lot of players lose hope because of lack of motivation.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

I’m not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.