I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

Genius is patience.

A man who has no office to go, to I don’t care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora’s ‚Runaway‘ music video. Something inside me clicked, like, ‚That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.‘

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

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

I’ve always wanted to live above my means because it inspired me to work harder.

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.

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

The secret is not to give up hope. It’s very hard not to because if you’re really doing something worthwhile I think you will be pushed to the brink of hopelessness before you come through the other side.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

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.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.

I would rather make my name than inherit it.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.

Everybody is going to have their critics. It’s easy to get discouraged in life.

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

The good part about youngsters is that they are so fearless. You want to be like them.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

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.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

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.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

I have to keep improving myself and challenging myself.

My rule is to break one sweat a day.

He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money.

Off with you! You’re a happy fellow, for you’ll give happiness and joy to many other people. There is nothing better or greater than that!

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

Success is not a stop sign.

Nothing will work unless you do.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

It’s hard work making movies. It’s like being a doctor: you work long hours, very hard hours, and it’s emotional, tense work. If you don’t really love it, then it ain’t worth it.

Failure is not an option. Everyone has to succeed.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

I’m about being the best.

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

I pity the fool who just gives up.

The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.

I always start my campaigns early, and I run hard. Maybe it comes from the rough-and-tumble world of San Francisco politics, where it’s not even a contact sport – it’s a blood sport. This is how I am as a candidate. This is how I run campaigns.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

The shortest answer is doing the thing.

The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.

If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.