Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it all just hurts.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

You can’t think; you just gotta do things.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

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.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

I’m tender on the inside.

The good part about youngsters is that they are so fearless. You want to be like them.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

I think it does Discworld good if I don’t write about it all the time: sometimes you have to get it out of your system.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

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.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

If a man does his best, what else is there?

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

Action expresses priorities.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

I don’t feel pressure in a negative way. I like pressure. I feel excitement and calm at the same time. No pressure, no diamonds. I want pressure: pressure creates drama, creates emotion.

I don’t care if you get up in the morning and don’t wash, don’t put any make-up on, don’t do your hair, even, but you have to have clothes if you want to look different.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

If a small-town boy like me who bagged groceries was able to make his dreams come true, you can too.

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‚If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?‘ And whenever the answer has been ‚No‘ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.

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

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort – I think it keeps you going.

I’m pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people’s bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

If we’re going to bring out the best in people, we, too, need to sow seeds of encouragement.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

We work to become, not to acquire.

I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.