To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

Do your job. Do it the best you can. Do it right, because somebody, sometimes your best friend, is waiting for you to screw up so she can take your place.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

Just because I managed to do a little something, I don’t want anyone back home to think I got the big head.

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

If you look at the movie ‚Belly,‘ I identify with Sincere the most. I am a gangster. I love my lady to death. I’m not in the game for the wrong reasons. I’m not in the game for the glory. I’m in the game to survive so the people that I love could be straight. I’m a highly intelligent individual.

Few people realize that luck is created.

Both old and young alike ought to seek wisdom: the former in order that, as age comes over him, he may be young in good things because of the grace of what has been, and the latter in order that, while he is young, he may at the same time be old, because he has no fear of the things which are to come.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

I have always had this view about the modern education system: we pay attention to brain development, but the development of warmheartedness we take for granted.

On one of my last days at school, the headmaster said I would either end up in prison or become a millionaire. That was quite a startling prediction, but in some respects, he was right on both counts!

If someone offers you a breath mint, accept it.

I didn’t get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

I’m not good at talking about myself.

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

If I’d just tried for them dinky singles I could’ve batted around .600.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

And winning is a huge thing for me.

The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.

We named the book ‚Extreme Ownership‘ because we really found that when we looked at not only at leaders but at teams that were the most successful, we found that the ones that had this attitude of extreme ownership were the ones that did the best, and it’s definitely an attitude that I had.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

I’m in awe of the universe, but I don’t necessarily believe there’s an intelligence or agent behind it. I do have a passion for the visual in religious rituals, though, even though they may be completely empty and bereft of substance.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

If you have a success you have it for the wrong reasons. If you become popular it is always because of the worst aspects of your work.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting. But it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously.

I would counsel people to go to college, because it’s one of the best times in your life in terms of who you meet and develop a broad set of intellectual skills.

‚Happiness‘ is a pointless goal.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

There is one thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, and that is discipline. Because your dreams and your goals are not there waking up for you in the morning.

Whatever you dwell on in the conscious grows in your experience.

A BMW can’t take you as far as a diploma.

In ‚Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education‘ and ‚Why A Students Work for C Students,‘ I reveal the secrets of the wealthy and what schools will never teach you about money.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

The only shame is to have none.

You can’t hire someone to practice for you.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

I still have my first paycheck. It was just, I think, a dollar or two that I got when I started as a songwriter with BMI, and I had some songs there that I had through the company, and in the mail I got this big old check for, like, a dollar and a half or something. Somebody had recorded one of my songs.

Of course awards matter.

When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.

The first condition of education is being able to put someone to wholesome and meaningful work.