In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

He who walks in the eightfold noble path with unswerving determination is sure to reach Nirvana.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

I only want my work to make people happy.

I’m not interested in people positioning me next to other artists.

Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.

I am not afraid of saying something and going and pursuing it. That’s it. I see it in my mind. I say it out loud. I go and do it.

I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more. Especially when it comes to entertaining.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

I’m an all-or-nothing kind of guy, I guess.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

You’ll never do a whole lot unless you’re brave enough to try.

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

When I was four, my mother insisted I get out of the car and find my own way home. Although I got lost, I did find my way home. It taught me the value of independence at an early age.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I’ll probably… drop writing children’s books and become a political cartoonist again.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

It’s rule number one, really – beating your teammate.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.

Through every victory and every setback, I’ve insisted that change is never easy and never quick; that we wouldn’t meet all of our challenges in one term, or one presidency, or even in one lifetime.

Japan’s very interesting. Some people think it copies things. I don’t think that anymore. I think what they do is reinvent things. They will get something that’s already been invented and study it until they thoroughly understand it. In some cases, they understand it better than the original inventor.

I am sometimes sad when I hear the personal stories of Tibetan refugees who have been tortured or beaten. Some irritation, some anger comes. But it never lasts long. I always try to think at a deeper level, to find ways to console.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact.

So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today but for tomorrow.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

I just love Bowie. I think he’s the ultimate inventor.

Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.

Sleeping is no mean art: for its sake one must stay awake all day.

Fashion is inspired by youth and nostalgia and draws inspiration from the best of the past.

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

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.

If a man can… make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.

I’m not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men.

Remember, man does not live on bread alone: sometimes he needs a little buttering up.

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it.

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.

No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I’m committed to the fight game.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I’ve done it thousands of times.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.