Earn your success based on service to others, not at the expense of others.

When I was nine years old, living on the south side of Chicago, my father was a minister and my mother used to scrub floors. I had seven brothers and four sisters. I told my mama, ‚One of these days I’m going to be big and strong and buy you a beautiful house.‘ That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life, is to take care of my mother.

It needs time. Nobody wants to hear it, but that’s the truth: if you want to have success in the future, you have to be ready to work now.

I have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.

We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and Freedom will prevail.

You cannot be in a position of power and destroy the life of another person.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars; there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one.

In ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn’t been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A’s without taking a book home. I didn’t go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

‚Victory Lap,‘ even the title. It’s the accumulation of trial and error; that’s what I represent; trial and error.

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

When you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up. Once you get to the point where Hollywood sees that you create results, then the demand for you becomes higher.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top – I’m afraid that’s not quite right.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

It confuses me and disappoints me when somebody says, ‚What does he do? What does he do?‘ My records are some of the biggest anthems ever. What do you think, they magically just appear? Obama walked out to my record.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

Good executives never put off until tomorrow what they can get someone else to do today.

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

If you wish to succeed in life, make perseverance your bosom friend, experience your wise counselor, caution your elder brother, and hope your guardian genius.

The path to the CEO’s office should not be through the CFO’s office, and it should not be through the marketing department. It needs to be through engineering and design.

As a Christian, you forgive, and you feed the hungry and clothe the naked, and you visit the sick and comfort the lonely. If I’m a true follower of my lord and saviour Jesus Christ, I got to do the things you’re supposed to be doing.

I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.

Of all that is good, sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is the foundation of all actions.

My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

The next thing I knew, I was out of the service and making movies again. My first picture was called, GI Blues. I thought I was still in the army.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

The moment I said I’d finished a book, I knew what would happen. There would be a bidding war, and I would end up with someone who’d got the fattest wallet, who had bought it because I’d written Harry Potter. That would have been why.

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I, therefore, intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt.

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Look, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

In the successful organization, no detail is too small to escape close attention.

Leaders in all spheres who are living with HIV should be encouraged, not coerced, to lead by example and disclose their HIV status.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.

Do I think faith will be an important part of being a good president? Yes, I do.

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.

God puts people in our lives on purpose so we can help them succeed and help them become all He created them to be. Most people will not reach their full potential without somebody else believing in them.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Everyone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

It always seems impossible until it’s done.