Excellence, then, is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice.

I won’t accept anything less than the best a player’s capable of doing… and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!

There are two kinds of people one can call reasonable: those who serve God with all their heart because they know him, and those who seek him with all their heart because they do not know him.

Agency is a divine gift to you. You are free to choose what you will be and what you will do.

The noblest search is the search for excellence.

After one has been in prison, it is the small things that one appreciates: being able to take a walk whenever one wants, going into a shop and buying a newspaper, speaking or choosing to remain silent. The simple act of being able to control one’s person.

Grace is not part of consciousness; it is the amount of light in our souls, not knowledge nor reason.

All the interests of my reason, speculative as well as practical, combine in the three following questions: 1. What can I know? 2. What ought I to do? 3. What may I hope?

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

Misfortune seldom intrudes upon the wise man; his greatest and highest interests are directed by reason throughout the course of life.

The truth is often terrifying, which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew’s cinema. The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films, they explore the consequences of Neo’s choice to know the truth. It’s a beautiful, beautiful story.

Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

Every mind must make its choice between truth and repose. It cannot have both.

Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.

I’m not gonna be bad at anything, and I want to actually be the best at anything I’m doing. So if I’m playing basketball, if I’m taking the SATs, like, there’s a competitive spirit behind it. With production, it’s the same thing.

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

To the press alone, chequered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both.

The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Freedom is relative.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner’s medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it’s three-Michelin’s stars, there’s no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Reason commands us far more imperiously than a master; for in disobeying the one we are unfortunate, and in disobeying the other we are fools.

You don’t have to turn on the TV set. You don’t have to work on the Internet. It’s up to you.

An explanation of cause is not a justification by reason.

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

I think – I don’t know, maybe it’s nostalgia. But the choice, losing the choice to be able to use film is going to be – it’s gone. It’s going to be gone.

I’m a Christian by choice.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

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.

Humor is reason gone mad.

I want to go when I want. It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.

My father was a mean, controlling and manipulative person for most of his life. He was unpredictable and unstable.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.

You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.

I tried being reasonable, I didn’t like it.

It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines.

The only objects of practical reason are therefore those of good and evil. For by the former is meant an object necessarily desired according to a principle of reason; by the latter one necessarily shunned, also according to a principle of reason.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

I’m for women choosing whatever they want to do but they have to really know what they are doing.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

Most of us have hoped and prayed for something to happen a certain way, but it didn’t. And when this happened, we had a choice to make: to react with offense toward God or to trust Him anyway.

At United, there are great traditions, which you can’t buy in one or two years. They are created by victories. You need to prove again and again that you are better than the others. Manchester United have always done this, and are still doing it, so they are the best.

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.