At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

I once wanted to prove myself by being a great actress. Now I want to prove that I’m a person. Then maybe I’ll be a great actress.

I hate to see anybody sink. I hate to see anybody lose their dream, lose their home, something like that.

I never thought a career as a musician was possible.

The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive. To put it more accurately… you usually don’t use it at all. It uses you.

You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

If I can be a leader, I will.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

My real dream is to have a whole, like, buy a whole piece of land. Imagine, like, a long driveway. Like, a cul de sac-type street, with maybe, like, seven houses. Me be right here. Have my mom be able to be right here. My brother over here. My girl’s grandmother and family right here. Friends over there. That’s my real dream.

Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

I like pushing boundaries.

You learn a lot in life but there are a lot of tools and resources in school that help you grow professionally and personally for whatever goal you may want to achieve.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

They dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.

And obviously, from our own personal point of view, the principal challenge is a personal challenge.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

Often, in the real world, it’s not the smart that get ahead but the bold.

Elegance is usually confused with superficiality, fashion, lack of depth. This is a serious mistake: human beings need to have elegance in their actions and in their posture because this word is synonymous with good taste, amiability, equilibrium and harmony.

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

Don’t be dependent. At all. Ever. Period.

I don’t want to be an action star; action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer. I want my career to get longer.

I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

I have wanted to fly into space for many years, but never imagined it would really be feasible.

Your life must be a progression towards ownership – first mentally of your independence, and then physically of your work, owning what you produce.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

Self-respect knows no considerations.

As a kid, we would drive up and down 77 North – that’s our highway – there would be office buildings on the side of the highway and I’d be like, that’s what my house is going to look like when I get older. I’m going to start making my house look like this.

America is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

I always entertain great hopes.

Upon the farm of the uncle with whom I lived, we did know of the mortgage as some dreadful damper on youthful hopes of things that could not be bought. I do have a vivid recollection that the major purpose of a farm was to produce a living right on the spot for the family.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

If there are dreams about a beautiful South Africa, there are also roads that lead to their goal. Two of these roads could be named Goodness and Forgiveness.

You can make a board for all the goals you want in your life with the pictures on it, and that’s great, daydreaming is wonderful, but you can never plan your future.

The possession of anything begins in the mind.

It’s easy to forget who you are.

The aim of a college education is to teach you to know a good man when you see one.

I didn’t tell any of my friends that I wanted to be a comedian, because I was superstitious. I thought if I told people, it wouldn’t happen. So I kept it all in my head for years and years.

Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.

Everybody wants to be me. What can I say?

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. But it’s exciting to be able to have the opportunity to do things I always dreamed of as a kid.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.