Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

Some habits of ineffectiveness are rooted in our social conditioning toward quick-fix, short-term thinking.

Everybody has talent, it’s just a matter of moving around until you’ve discovered what it is.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

Happiness is a how; not a what. A talent, not an object.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, it’s at the end of your arm, as you get older, remember you have another hand: The first is to help yourself, the second is to help others.

I’ve noticed that when I am selling a lot of records, certain things become easier. I’m not talking about getting a table in a restaurant.

Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession.

Irrespective of whether you have talent or not, one has to work hard. Just being talented doesn’t mean anything; you can end up wasting it before you realize.

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

We must use time as a tool, not as a couch.

The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time.

If pleasures are greatest in anticipation, just remember that this is also true of trouble.

Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster’s own personal example.

It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

If you want to thrive in today’s economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed.

I’m extremely willful to win, and I respond to challenges. Scoring titles and stuff like that… it sounds, well, I don’t care how it sounds – to me, scoring comes easy. It’s not a challenge to me to win the scoring title, because I know I can.

The highest reward that God gives us for good work is the ability to do better work.

I care very deeply about the people at Tesla. I feel like I have a great debt to the people of Tesla who are making the company successful.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.

Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Everybody asks if putting is like shooting free throws. It has a very similar kind of mindset. And it’s just you, the ball, and the target.

The man who is intent on making the most of his opportunities is too busy to bother about luck.

I tell people, and it’s the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won’t make me a car. And you can sit in church till your bottom is flat and that won’t make you a servant of Christ.

I never woke up and thought, ‚I really want to live a bold life.‘

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

I think that as you grow up, as you get older, we can’t get bitter, we can’t get jaded.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves.

I just feel like, with rappers, there’s so much complacency. It’s like, ‚Oh, I’m a rapper. I’m successful. I make money. That’s all that matters.‘ But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you’re aware of it, it’s happening.

Everybody has a creative potential and from the moment you can express this creative potential, you can start changing the world.

I like to complain and do nothing to make things better.

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

Writing is challenging work because it’s so easy to get consumed with how it’s going, what’s going to happen to it, who’s going to like or not like it. You want to get all of that stuff out of your head and just let the work flow.

I don’t see how people are comfortable with seeing other people be great. You can be happy for anybody, but what is your excuse to not want to be great? These people are great because they just say, ‚I’ma do that,‘ and they do it. That’s it. There’s no scientifical process.

The big message of gospel is that you don’t have to keep fighting the universe; you can stop, and the universe is quite good to you. There is a loss of ego.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when he is young nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old. For no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul.

Be a force of love as often as you can and turn away negative thoughts whenever you feel them surface.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

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

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.