How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We’ll adapt, we’ll train, we’ll advise, we’ll mentor, and we’ll fight, and we’ll fight well.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.

Even when we have physical hardships, we can be very happy.

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

I can handle pain.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

I’m committed to the fight game.

Predicting rain doesn’t count. Building arks does.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

I need music. It’s like my heartbeat, so to speak. It keeps me going no matter what’s going on – bad games, press, whatever!

By indignities men come to dignities.

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged – to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.

I’m not going to stop having problems.

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.

Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.

We will all fail in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at a thing doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit trying.

The spirit is the true self. The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure.

The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.

A warrior is not a person that carries a gun. The biggest war you ever go through is right between your own ears. It’s in your mind. We’re all going through a war in our mind, and we have to callus our mind to fight that war and to win that war.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

Dave Mackay is my definition of a superstar. The man broke his leg three times, but wouldn’t be carried off. He walked off.

Many times, we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.

He who laughs best today, will also laughs last.

A good boxing competition gives one the sight of fine men in their prime, trained to the ounce, showing the highest skill, pluck and endurance in carrying out their attack and defence under strict rules of fair play and good temper.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

Nothing can resist the person who smiles at life – I don’t mean the ironic and disillusioned smile of my grandfather, but the triumphant smile of the person who knows that he will survive, or that at least he will be saved by what seems to be destroying him.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the ‚right‘ thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before starting the trip.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

Finite to fail, but infinite to venture.

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

In college, a loss is pretty devastating. That feeling kind of goes away in an 82-game season. You hate to lose, but you also have a lot more games to make up for it.

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.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Serious illness doesn’t bother me for long because I am too inhospitable a host.