Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

More people should read books. It’s the most concentrated experience you can have.

If you look at my life, generally, I’ve been put in situations which were difficult and which I conquered.

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

How can I be useful, of what service can I be? There is something inside me, what can it be?

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‚Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you.

‚Worry‘ is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.

The only time you really live fully is from thirty to sixty. The young are slaves to dreams; the old servants of regrets. Only the middle-aged have all their five senses in the keeping of their wits.

When one has finished building one’s house, one suddenly realizes that in the process one has learned something that one really needed to know in the worst way – before one began.

It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.

I wish I had known when I was in the White House what I know now about the Third World.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.

I’m never going to be fast, and nobody will ever mistake me for being fast.

You can’t learn in school what the world is going to do next year.

Mr. Morgan buys his partners; I grow my own.

I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way – by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!

It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.

I could never identify with that word, ‚weak.‘

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Time heals griefs and quarrels, for we change and are no longer the same persons. Neither the offender nor the offended are any more themselves.

One who does not know when to die, does not know how to live.

In the world today many people rightfully feel entitled to have success and the good things in life, but they usually understand it will require sacrifice and hard work.

My lectures, based on Islamic teachings, were on various subjects. Some of the titles were, ‚The Intoxication of Life,‘ ‚The Purpose of Life,‘ ‚The Real Cause of Man’s Distress,‘ ‚The Journey to the Goal in Life,‘ and, one of my favorites, ‚The Heart of Man.‘ They contained important insights that spoke to something deep inside me.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

I’m reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.

‚Victory Lap,‘ even the title. It’s the accumulation of trial and error; that’s what I represent; trial and error.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.

Live your life as though your every act were to become a universal law.

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.

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

The more you know the less you need to say.

The wise man does not expose himself needlessly to danger, since there are few things for which he cares sufficiently; but he is willing, in great crises, to give even his life – knowing that under certain conditions it is not worthwhile to live.

Nearly all the things I do that are of any merit at all start off just being good fun, and I think I’m sort of building up to doing something else quite soon.

I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!

The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before.

If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.

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

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don’t live angry, let go now!

Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

An author writes a book, and that’s the book at that point. And if the author writes the book again, then somehow something has gone wrong, if you see what I mean.

How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil.