Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

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

I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

I don’t focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I don’t worry about it.

I’ve actually taken companies public, I’ve actually busted companies, I’ve actually gone broke.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

People don’t care about what someone says about you in a movie – or even what you say, right? They care about what you build. And if you can make something that makes people’s life better, then that’s something that’s really good.

I’ve never lived my life in the opinion of others. I believe I’m a good person. I believe I’m a good mom. But that’s for my kids to decide, not for the world.

I will not be triumphed over.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.

I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.

Dream and you shall become.

Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim.

As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner’s medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it’s three-Michelin’s stars, there’s no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.

The minute you got the Nobel Peace Prize, things that I said yesterday, with nobody paying too much attention, I say the same things after I got it – oh! It was quite crucial for people, and it helped our morale because apartheid did look invincible.

Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

There was my name up in lights. I said, ‚God, somebody’s made a mistake.‘ But there it was, in lights. And I sat there and said, ‚Remember, you’re not a star.‘ Yet there it was up in lights.

I think as long as I do a good job and put in all my effort to proving that I’m worth it, then everything should be fine.

Personal beauty is a greater recommendation than any letter of reference.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

Winning, to me, is easy. Winning more is the challenge.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

I’m not intimidated by how people perceive me.

We will naturally pursue our goals on the strength of our own resources, skills and enterprise. But, we know that we will be more successful when we do this in partnership with the world.

Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

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

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

I don’t know if I ever feel totally great about a record when I put it out. With every record that I put out, someone has literally got to come pry it from me because when I listen to my own music, I just hear flaws in it.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

Men weren’t always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

Anybody with ability can play in the big leagues. But to be able to trick people year in and year out the way I did, I think that was a much greater feat.

In inner-city, low-income communities of color, there’s such a high correlation in terms of educational quality and success.

If I think too hard about a relationship, I’ll talk myself out of it.

And winning is a huge thing for me.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me.

The opportunities of America opened out to me the public schools. They carried me to the professional training of an American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

I often joke that 100 years from now I hope people are saying, ‚Dang, she looks good for her age!‘

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.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

I walk tall; I got a tall attitude.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.