Don’t worry about motivation. Motivation is fickle. It comes and goes. It is unreliable – and when you are counting on motivation to get your goals accomplished, you will likely fall short.

When we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. Then, when there’s a period of waiting or we hit a plateau, we find out how committed we really are and whether we’re going to see things through to the finish or quit.

Pessimism never won any battle.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

Americans never quit.

I’ve felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father’s family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.

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.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.

We live in a culture that relishes tearing others down. It’s ultimately more fulfilling, though, to help people reach their goals. Instead of feeling jealous, remember: If God did it for them, He can do it for you.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

I wish everyone well, but you need to focus on yourself. You need to stop putting your hand out. Everyone wants hand outs. Everyone wants things for free. You’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to grind. You’ve got go through the struggle, and you’ve got to get it.

Man is not made for defeat.

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

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.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

I want people to draw strength from me.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

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

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.

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

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

If you’re bored with life – you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.

One day, I want to make a PG film.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

Small aim is a crime.

I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.

I only want my work to make people happy.

Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.

We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.

Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.

If you’re not going to be rewarded for your virtues, and instead you’re going to be punished for them, then what’s your motivation to continue?

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

You know capitalism is this wonderful thing that motivates people, it causes wonderful inventions to be done. But in this area of diseases of the world at large, it’s really let us down.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

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

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.