Applause waits on success.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

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

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life’s path.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

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 always believe that there should come a time when your energy, speed, stamina should combine well with your brains.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

You can’t think; you just gotta do things.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

Winning – that’s the most important to me. It’s as simple as that.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

With all the… success that I’ve been lucky enough to get? That doesn’t happen unless the home life is solid.

The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands.

We’ve always had a pretty competitive and pretty ferocious battle with British Airways… It’s lasted now about 14 years, and we’re very pleased to have survived it.

The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

Competition is a sin.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

It is no use saying, ‚We are doing our best.‘ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it’s really let us down.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

I got a signed document from Bullock’s saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock’s!

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

In all seriousness, people think that it’s the ideas that are important. Well, everyone has ideas, all the time. I tend to write mine down and remember them, but at some point you have to apply the bum to the seat and knock out about sixty five thousand words – that’s how long a novel is.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

Without failure there is no achievement.

To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

We all sort of do want incentives for creative people to still exist at a certain level. You know, maybe rock stars shouldn’t make as much; who knows? But you want as much creativity to take place in the future as took place in the past.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

It’s not fun to get out of bed early in the morning. When the alarm goes off, it doesn’t sing you a song: it hits you in the head with a baseball bat. So how do you respond to that? Do you crawl underneath your covers and hide? Or do you get up, get aggressive, and attack the day?

What you don’t do can be a destructive force.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.