How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

Start your diet during a period of optimism and happiness.

Never leave a rhinestone unturned.

One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.

It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.

I love having my hands in the dirt. It is never a science and always an art. There are no rules. And if it comes down to me versus that weed I’m trying to pull out of the ground that doesn’t want to come out? I know I’ll win.

Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear.

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there’s the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn’t do it the way somebody told you to do it.

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

While we should never give up our principles, we must also realize that we cannot maintain our principles unless we survive.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

I’m not resigned, but I’m realistic too. The statistics in my case are very poor. Not many people come through esophageal cancer and live to talk about it, or not for long. And the other wager is, the part of the wager, it’s a certainty you’ll have a terrible time and you may wish you were dying because it’s an awful process.

I went through every emotion with tryna pursue what I’m doing, you know what I mean? And I think what’s gon‘ separate whoever’s gon go for something, that you ain’t gon‘ quit.

I feel real good because it’s about representing the young world and how to uplift each other and how to push us to be greater and make sure we don’t fall or get trapped or get in trouble, you know what I mean. Stay focused, you know what I mean.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

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.

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.

I promise you, I will have something on the Internet that is game-changing. I can’t lose.

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

When you write an article about anything, trolls use the comments to attack. They feel frustrated – but haters are losers. It’s not good to feed this aspect. It’s more intelligent to be constructive.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

In a lot of ways, success is much harder than I thought it would be. I figured that you’d get here and then everything would be happily ever after. But, it’s hard work, almost harder once you’re successful because you’ve got to maintain it.

Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides.

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

My faith was tested like Job. That’s the message I try to tell other people: just because you believe in God, serve God, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, people gotta realize, it don’t mean things not gonna happen to you.

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

I’d be so bored if I wasn’t going out there, knowing that I could still do it. So, I’m going to work hard to be ready to go, and I still plan on playing for a long time.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

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.

My philosophy is it’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am, and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents‘ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

My main goal is to be a self-made man and have control over what’s mine.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

If one dream dies, dream another dream. If you get knocked down, get back up and go again.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

People have to understand one thing: at the age of 18, I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United. It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything.