All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

All variety of created objects which represent order and life in the universe could happen only by the willful reasoning of its original Creator, whom I call the ‚Lord God.‘

The first thing which I can record concerning myself is, that I was born. These are wonderful words. This life, to which neither time nor eternity can bring diminution – this everlasting living soul, began. My mind loses itself in these depths.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

If you want to be a voice for peace in the world, begin by making peace a permanent condition of your own life.

Every man who has at last succeeded, after long effort, in calling up the divinity which lies hidden in a woman’s heart, is startled to find that he must obey the God he summoned.

Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn’t matter. I’m not sure a bad person can write a good book, If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.

In modern life nothing produces such an effect as a good platitude. It makes the whole world kin.

I care very deeply about the people at Tesla. I feel like I have a great debt to the people of Tesla who are making the company successful.

I am 55 years old now. It takes three years to write one book. I don’t know how many books I will be able to write before I die. It is like a countdown. So with each book I am praying – please let me live until I am finished.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

In my later years, I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I’ve worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior.

Getting organized in the normal routines of life and finishing little projects you’ve started is an important first step toward realizing larger goals. If you can’t get a handle on the small things, how will you ever get it together to focus on the big things?

I don’t know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.

Even when you’re 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.

Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.

No one has a greater asset for his business than a man’s pride in his work.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Power is given only to those who dare to lower themselves and pick it up. Only one thing matters, one thing; to be able to dare!

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Health is the soul that animates all the enjoyments of life, which fade and are tasteless without it.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

For me, education was power.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?

Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

Hope is favorable and confident expectation; it’s an expectant attitude that something good is going to happen and things will work out, no matter what situation we’re facing.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Maybe other people will try to limit me but I don’t limit myself.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

The bird is powered by its own life and by its motivation.

The longer I am out of office, the more infallible I appear to myself.

I worked with someone who told me they’d never like me. But for some reason, I just felt like I needed her approval. So I started changing myself to please her. It made me stop being social and friendly. I was so unhappy.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

A great man is always willing to be little.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

I’m not going to get somewhere and say, ‚OK, I’m done.‘ Success is never final; I’ll just keep on going. The same way as failure never being fatal. Just keep going. I’m going to the stars and then past them.

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I’d follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I’ve been very lucky.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

That’s the shock: All cliches are true. The years really do speed by. Life really is as short as they tell you it is. And there really is a God – so do I buy that one? If all the other cliches are true… Hell, don’t pose me that one.