All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

Young men soon give, and soon forget, affronts; old age is slow in both.

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.

Sin, also for those who don’t have faith, exists when one goes against one’s conscience. To listen to and obey it means, in fact, to decide in face of what is perceived as good or evil. And on this decision pivots the goodness or malice of our action.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

I just hate meetings. Though it’s true that once you’ve made a lot of money, people around you might be full of ideas about ways to make lots more money and might be disappointed that you don’t want to seize every opportunity to do so.

I usually make up my mind about a man in ten seconds, and I very rarely change it.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

We should work with the principle that a work that can be done at a lower level should never be escalated to a higher level.

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury.

Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

At the end of the day, when it comes time to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values, and your vision, and the life experiences that make you who you are.

Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.

Of two evils, choose neither.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

If the critics are right that I’ve made all my decisions based on polls, then I must not be very good at reading them.

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

I don’t believe in signing anything and everything that comes my way. I leave it to my agency to help narrow them down for me, but I do research it myself before signing. The image of the brand and its ambassadors go hand in hand.

My authoritarian and quick manner of making decisions led me to have serious problems and to be accused of being ultraconservative. I have never been a right-winger. It was my authoritarian way of making decisions that created problems.

The day you stop doing the small things is the day you think you’re above everybody else.

People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

Being prime minister is a lonely job… you cannot lead from the crowd.

Little things affect little minds.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Some people take defeat and losses a certain way. You see how some fighters take losses.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Wisdom stands at the turn in the road and calls upon us publicly, but we consider it false and despise its adherents.

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

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.

Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I’m riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I’m riding on secure protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park – no, I don’t wear the dreaded helmet then.

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.

I didn’t want to submit to the army and then, on the day of judgment, have God say to me, ‚Why did you do that?‘ This life is a trial, and you realize that what you do is going to be written down for Judgment Day.

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

I just know what is right and I want to do what is right.

The thing we fear we bring to pass.

I always have confidence, whether I miss four in a row or make four in a row, that the next one’s going in. To a coach, sometimes that might not make sense.

Let’s just be smart this time. I’m looking for smart.

Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.

I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.

The thing I always say to people is this: ‚If you avoid failure, you also avoid success.‘

I shall never be a heretic; I may err in dispute, but I do not wish to decide anything finally; on the other hand, I am not bound by the opinions of men.

What we think, we become.

You’ll never rise any higher than the way you see yourself.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.

If I want to do well in racing I need to be more focused so I stopped going to school. If I wasn’t a very good driver it would not be a wise decision, but it gives me an advantage over my competitors.

What’s real freedom? Real freedom is being able to not have my way and still be just as happy as if I did.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

My friends ask me if I want more kids, and I always say yes, I want more; it’s the best thing you can have in your life.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of ‚I know.‘ Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas.

We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right mayhap our children and our children’s children will go that way; but if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.

We misjudge risk if we feel we have some control over it, even if it’s an illusory sense of control.

If you’re doing a biography, you try to stay as accurate as possible to reality. But you really don’t know what was going on in the person’s mind. You just know what was going on in the minds of people around him.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

The business aspect is one of the most important things about having a music career, because every choice you make in a management meeting affects your life a year-and-a-half from now.