Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

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.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.

Big results require big ambitions.

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.

The Bible says to ‚fear not,‘ but this doesn’t mean you should never feel scared. It means when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what you are supposed to do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Excellence encourages one about life generally; it shows the spiritual wealth of the world.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.

Get busy living, or get busy dying.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

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

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 want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.

As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

The progress of India is the destiny of one-sixth of humanity. And it will also mean a world more confident of its prosperity and more secure about its future.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

We are going to transform Britain’s rail system from the worst in the world to the best. If you can do a few things like that, when the body gives out, you can say you’ve lived a good life.

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.

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

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

Throughout my career, I fed off the fuel of people not being able to understand me.

Having these colossal accolades and titles, they get in the way.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

No sooner said than done – so acts your man of worth.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.

A process which led from the amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously a progress though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

My mother and my father have been married 50 years, and he’s just started to understand that something’s wrong with the system. He accepted the whole thing, you see. Yet this industrious kind of engagement didn’t bring him the success, according to American terms, that he wanted. I was probably affected by this very much. In fact, I know I was.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

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

I got a signed document from Bullock’s saying that they had such-and-such drawings on consignment. Of course, nobody bought any of them, but otherwise, I was a big success: I had my drawings on sale at Bullock’s!

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.