Beware of endeavoring to become a great man in a hurry. One such attempt in ten thousand may succeed. These are fearful odds.

I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

I believe that a trusting attitude and a patient attitude go hand in hand. You see, when you let go and learn to trust God, it releases joy in your life. And when you trust God, you’re able to be more patient. Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.

Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.

Manners require time, and nothing is more vulgar than haste.

I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.

Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.

I didn’t know how to deal with success. If there was a Rock Star 101, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me.

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.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.

A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

Often people become our friend or follower with an undercurrent of resentment in our having more success than they have. They secretly desire the opportunity to take us down a notch; they have a nose for any misstep on our part they can exploit.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

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.

The most successful detectives owe their success to noticing small signs. Scouts are natural detectives and never let the smallest detail escape them. These small things are called by Scouts ‚Sign.‘

I’ve actually taken companies public, I’ve actually busted companies, I’ve actually gone broke.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.

Endurance is patience concentrated.

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Basically, I’m one of the greatest producers ever. And I’m also one of the greatest DJs ever. And I’m also one of the best executives ever.

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 your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they’ll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad’s restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

I bought a company in the mid-’90s called Dexter Shoe and paid $400 million for it. And it went to zero. And I gave about $400 million worth of Berkshire stock, which is probably now worth $400 billion. But I’ve made lots of dumb decisions. That’s part of the game.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‚Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.‘

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

I have a good team. It’s good to have a good team.

A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

Everybody could be an entrepreneur, but very few will become very rich entrepreneurs.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.

If a man can… make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Richard Burton came from the same town as me, so I thought I’d follow my nose, and follow my luck. I think I’ve been very lucky.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

God has already done everything He’s going to do. The ball is now in your court. If you want success, if you want wisdom, if you want to be prosperous and healthy, you’re going to have to do more than meditate and believe; you must boldly declare words of faith and victory over yourself and your family.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

I always make my dreams into goals.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

Building a mission and building a business go hand in hand. The primary thing that excites me is the mission. But we have always had a healthy understanding that we need to do both.