Anytime someone tells me that I can’t do something, I want to do it more.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

In college, a loss is pretty devastating. That feeling kind of goes away in an 82-game season. You hate to lose, but you also have a lot more games to make up for it.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

I’m committed to the fight game.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

With self-discipline most anything is possible.

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.

The key to winning is choosing to do God’s will and loving others with all you’ve got.

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

When you create circumstances together, when you try everything, then you can lose. But you need to show the importance.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

I can’t ever remember sitting around and saying, ‚gosh let’s hurry up and get these debates going, that’ll win it for me.‘ Nope.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

At one point, I didn’t care. Now I want as many people to hear my music as possible.

Founding a company is hard. Most of it isn’t smooth. You’ll have to make very hard decisions. You have to fire a few people. Therefore, if you don’t believe in your mission, giving up is easy. The majority of founders give up. But the best founders don’t give up.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

Everybody has a purpose.

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you’ve got.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

God tries you in certain, certain ways. Some people are rich, and they believe in God. They lose the money, things get hard, they get weak and quit going to church. Quit serving God like they did.

The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way – I hope it never will.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

Around every corner, always protect the engine that powers you.

The man who has no problems is out of the game.

I believe it is universally understood and acknowledged that all men will ever act correctly, unless they have a motive to do otherwise.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

I was a fighting machine with a will of iron.

I’m always asked, ‚What’s the secret to success?‘ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‚always do what you are afraid to do.‘

I won at every level – all the way since I started playing the game of basketball at nine. I’ve won at every level, won championships at every level. And, you know, it won’t be fulfilled until I win at the highest level.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

The battle is all over except the ‚shouting‘ when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

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

God helps those who help themselves.

I think that at the start of a game, you’re always playing to win, and then maybe if you’re ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.