Believe it or not, I was just given an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee.

They’ll forget all the rubbish when I’ve gone, and they’ll remember the football. If only one person thinks I’m the best player in the world, that’s good enough for me.

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

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

Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

Everywhere I go, the kids call me ‚the book lady.‘ The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the ‚book lady‘ title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I’ve done something good with my life and with my success.

Great men, unknown to their generation, have their fame among the great who have preceded them, and all true worldly fame subsides from their high estimate beyond the stars.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.

I have two Golden Boot awards at home. It would be nice to win another, but I wouldn’t mind it if I didn’t.

If you wish to be a success in the world, promise everything, deliver nothing.

You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor.

A lot was accomplished in my mixtape career. But I still needed a few things: I needed to be recognized. I need to have radio. I need to have a real retail machine that can get us where we need to get that.

Appraisals are where you get together with your team leader and agree what an outstanding member of the team you are, how much your contribution has been valued, what massive potential you have and, in recognition of all this, would you mind having your salary halved.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

All I can do is try to create my own brand and have people appreciate me for that.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

Sometimes you recognize that there is a category of human experience that has not been identified but everyone knows about it. That is when I find a term to describe it.

People are always coming up to me and saying, ‚I heard your dad’s speech, and it’s really great.‘ And they’ll mention some place I didn’t even know my dad was going to.

The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has.

What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

You want to know whether we’re better off? I’ve got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!

To win MVP was a dream come true for sure, but there are guys who have done this multiple times.

I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

Einstein’s gravitational theory, which is said to be the greatest single achievement of theoretical physics, resulted in beautiful relations connecting gravitational phenomena with the geometry of space; this was an exciting idea.

For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is not simply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve, to conquer.

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

I don’t really focus on these things – on what tags are given to me or what people think of me off the field – stuff like that. My main focus is always to do well on the field for the Indian cricket team. When people say good things about me off the field, I am more than happy to accept them.

It was because the chimps are so eye-catching, so like us and teach us so much that my work was recognised worldwide.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him.

I just want to do well with the national team.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

We give speeches and pin ribbons onto uniforms, etch names into walls. And all that is fine, but too often, all those tributes, all those words aren’t always backed up by action. And that felt like such a stark contrast to me, because, as we all know, our military is all about action.

No great thing is created suddenly.

There are only two things. Truth and lies. Truth is indivisible, hence it cannot recognize itself; anyone who wants to recognize it has to be a lie.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel, within secure borders.

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.

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

My mother used to tell me man gives the award, God gives the reward. I don’t need another plaque.