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

Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly. Whether they will be of use to him is conditioned by survival. Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer.

To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

I’m not a good storm-outer… because I forget stuff.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

My parents were just constantly affirming me in everything that I did. Late at night, I’d wake up and hear my mother talking over my bed, saying, ‚You’re going to do great on this test. You can do anything you want.‘

If people take anything from my music, it should be motivation to know that anything is possible as long as you keep working at it and don’t back down.

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

I defy gravity.

My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

Do not quench your inspiration and your imagination; do not become the slave of your model.

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements, and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.

If my businesses or my investments are not profitable, then I don’t eat. And I like to eat.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

One today is worth two tomorrows.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

I like to work and am a focused person.

The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

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?

If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.

I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it – and I may come back.

Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

Some people plant in the spring and leave in the summer. If you’re signed up for a season, see it through. You don’t have to stay forever, but at least stay until you see it through.

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.

I failed to make the chess team because of my height.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

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

My music will go on forever. Maybe it’s a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.

The man who has won millions at the cost of his conscience is a failure.

Even though you are on the right track – you will get run over if you just sit there.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

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

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.

It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn’t think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.