I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

Passions are the gales of life.

I do have motivation. A lot of motivation.

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.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

Young men and women, your education is ever important – to us, to you, and to God.

It take many a year, mon, and maybe some bloodshed must be, but righteousness someday prevail.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

I had a rough childhood coming up, and I just took all that negative energy and made it very positive for myself to drive me. I’m a very driven person. I have passion that almost scares people, just to be successful and make it no matter what.

On Sundays when I speak, I hopefully give somebody something that they can use the next day at work or at home.

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

Nothing’s ever easy as long as you go on living.

I never got into training to be an All-Ireland boxing champ or to win a belt. At the start, I just got into it to learn how to defend myself when I got into situations.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

If we are to be happy, we must first react against our tendency to follow the line of least resistance, a tendency that causes us either to remain as we are, or to look primarily to activities external to ourselves for what will provide new impetus to our lives.

A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best and then make sure that you are.

Small aim is a crime.

The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.

Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

I would love to continue in music, with writing… but I am not the kind of person who will hang around if I start to become irrelevant. If that happens, I will bow down gracefully, raise my kids, and have a garden. And I am going to let my hair go gray when I am older. I don’t need to be blonde when I’m 60!

The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

To learn something but not to do is really not to learn. To know something but not to do is really not to know.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

One thing Britons have always been celebrated for, and that is being able to stick it out in a tight place.

Many entrepreneurs do not realize that many of the problems their businesses face today began yesterday, long before there was a business.

I am not afraid… I was born to do this.

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

Now we’re in the midst of not just advocating for change, not just calling for change – we’re doing the grinding, sometimes frustrating work of delivering change – inch by inch, day by day.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

As I get older, I tend to put more into family than I used to.

I grew up with the sea, and poverty for me was sumptuous; then I lost the sea and found all luxuries gray and poverty unbearable.

That’s correct, I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write.

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

I’m not afraid to make mistakes.

I’m very proud to be black, but black is not all I am. That’s my cultural historical background, my genetic makeup, but it’s not all of who I am nor is it the basis from which I answer every question.

I’m not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

I want to work; then, as my kids get older, I want to have adventures. I want to visit all their countries: learn and live inside all their cultures.

You’ve really got to start hitting the books because it’s no joke out here.

We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.

In the beginning, I was very insecure. I hated how I looked in pictures.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.