Becoming an inspiration for kids is great. I want to inspire them to do whatever they want to.

The thing that motivates me is a very common form of motivation. And that is, with other folks counting on me, it’s so easy to be motivated.

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

Zappa was very technical and impressed by things that were musically challenging – weird time signatures, strange keys, awkward chord sequences. Zappa was important to me as an example of everything I didn’t want to do. I’m very grateful to him, actually.

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

It’s easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

I always dreamt of holding the bat and winning games for India. That was my inspiration to take up cricket.

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

The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

There is no substitute for victory.

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

It’s so clear that you have to cherish everyone. I think that’s what I get from these older black women, that every soul is to be cherished, that every flower Is to bloom.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

I had so many people try to talk me out of starting a rocket company, it was crazy.

I got a greater purpose. God put something in my heart to get across, and that’s what I’m going to focus on, using my voice as an instrument and doing what needs to be done.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

I always wanted to know, and I always used to daydream, about what it would be like to stand on a really big stage and sing songs for a lot of people, songs that I had written… Daydreaming was kind of my No. 1 thing when I was little, because I didn’t have much of a social life going on.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.

I’m definitely gaining new fans, and that’s the key of any success… gain more love.

I guess any movie actor can become a role model for audiences out there who enjoy him.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

We based the look on rock ‚n roll right from the beginning.

When I write, I write about my surroundings. Sometimes it’s light, and sometimes it gets very dark.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

The power of imagination makes us infinite.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

‚Royal Beatings‘ was my first story, and it was published in 1977. But I sent all my early stories to ‚The New Yorker‘ in the 1950s, and then I stopped sending for a long time and sent only to magazines in Canada. ‚The New Yorker‘ sent me nice notes, though – penciled, informal messages. They never signed them. They weren’t terribly encouraging.

An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.

If you try and work out at 4:30 in the afternoon, how many people are going to chip away at that time? Your boss, your job, your work, your family, your other obligations that you might have. At 4:30 in the morning, all those people are asleep, so you can do whatever you want.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Encouragement to all women is – let us try to offer help before we have to offer therapy. That is to say, let’s see if we can’t prevent being ill by trying to offer a love of prevention before illness.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

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

What is once well done is done forever.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.