I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.

The man who has the will to undergo all labor may win to any good.

Nobody likes to fail. I want to succeed in everything I do, which isn’t much. But the things that I’m really passionate about, if I fail at those, if I’m not successful, what do I have?

I’ve always wanted to own and control the primary technology in everything we do.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.

I had very good support from Democrats and Republicans all throughout my administration. I had a very high batting average. We added more jobs per year in my four years than any other president since the Second World War.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

I’ve had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work.

I’m just a little kid from Akron.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

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

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

It’s rare for a startup to make money immediately, so you need to make sure that you have enough saved or that you have another income stream that can support you.

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.

To win is always good for the feeling of the whole team.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

I want a president with a record of public service, someone whose life’s work shows our children that we don’t chase fame and fortune for ourselves: we fight to give everyone a chance to succeed.

A great mind becomes a great fortune.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.

As far as a glass ceiling, I feel that all you can do is give it your absolute best with whatever gifts the universe has given you. And if you make it in some way that other people can recognize, that’s fine. But even if you don’t quote-unquote make it, you’re fine if you’ve given it your whole heart and soul.

All the breaks you need in life wait within your imagination, Imagination is the workshop of your mind, capable of turning mind energy into accomplishment and wealth.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

Nothing will work unless you do.

If you want to thrive in today’s economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed.

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 think, because I started Virgin when I was a teenager, it has become a part of me, like my family, and I am motivated by ambition for it, almost as if it were a child.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

The secret of success is to be ready when your opportunity comes.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

With Virgin, I’ve just loved creating things. And as a private company, I can get away with moving Virgin from records to airlines to train companies to space companies to whatever, without ever having to worry about analysts knocking the value of my stock.

You shall, I question not, find a way to the top if you diligently seek for it; for nature hath placed nothing so high that it is out of the reach of industry and valor.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Getting rich is about fun. It’s a game, and you have to treat it that way.

Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.

And you know, I’ve had great fun turning quite a lot of different industries on their head and making sure those industries will never be the same again, because Virgin went in and took them on.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

I was an overnight sensation.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

I think I’ve got my business notions and my sense for that sort of thing from my dad. My dad never had a chance to go to school. He couldn’t read and write. But he was so smart. He was just one of those people that could just make the most of anything and everything that he had to work with.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.