Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly. Whether they will be of use to him is conditioned by survival. Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer.

When you create circumstances together, when you try everything, then you can lose. But you need to show the importance.

People want you to fail.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

In a lot of ways, success is much harder than I thought it would be. I figured that you’d get here and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it’s hard work, almost harder once you’re successful because you’ve got to maintain it.

The world has not yet reached the point which, in my view, is an essential condition for the survival of our human species: access by all the peoples to the material resources of this planet.

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

The post of honour is a private station.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

Life isn’t meant to be easy. It’s hard to take being on the top – or on the bottom. I guess I’m something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things… Life is one crisis after another.

It is his restraint that is honorable to a person, not their liberty.

It’s a frustrating game because the situations so drastically change at different times over the course of the week, the game, the season. It feels like brain surgery at times.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you, and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

It must be quite mysterious to some people why I bother to carry on. Because, you know, I don’t sell that many records.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, seldom extinguished.

It was the Law of the Sea, they said. Civilization ends at the waterline. Beyond that, we all enter the food chain, and not always right at the top.

Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.

Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor.

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the pathway of the strong.

At fifteen life had taught me undeniably that surrender, in its place, was as honorable as resistance, especially if one had no choice.

Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

I was taught that the human brain was the crowning glory of evolution so far, but I think it’s a very poor scheme for survival.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

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.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today.

Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.

I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Honor is simply the morality of superior men.

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.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.

Honor and shame from no condition rise. Act well your part: there all the honor lies.

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.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

In the brute physical world, and the one encompassed by medicine, there are all too many things that could kill you, don’t kill you, and then leave you considerably weaker.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

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

There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.