I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

It’s really hard to guarantee things in life. I guarantee if you get up in the morning and you work out, and you work hard, you will have a better day – 100% guaranteed.

Of course there are moments that you wonder how long you should be doing it because there are other aspects which are not nice, of this lifestyle. But I just love winning.

It must be quite mysterious to some people why I bother to carry on. Because, you know, I don’t sell that many records.

I don’t believe in colleges and universities.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.

In the dim background of mind we know what we ought to be doing but somehow we cannot start.

My dad always said, ‚Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.‘

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!

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.

What you don’t do can be a destructive force.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

Work is the meat of life, pleasure the dessert.

Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

My elder brothers were all put apprentices to different trades. I was put to the grammar-school at eight years of age, my father intending to devote me, as the tithe of his sons, to the service of the Church.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.

I know what it feels like to struggle to get the education that you need.

The curse of me and my nation is that we always think things can be bettered by immediate action of some sort, any sort rather than no sort.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

We’re going to have to work. We’re going to have to play well. Nothing will be given to us.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you? What do you love about the future? If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

If you don’t set the tone for the day, the devil will set it for you.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

I like school and I like learning.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

I know Elon, we’re very like minded in many ways. We’re not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it’s one thing. He’s singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don’t find that Plan B idea motivating. I don’t want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

Most Africans don’t get to see these wild animals at all. Once they see and learn about them, they are much more likely to become involved in protecting the environment.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

We do not learn; and what we call learning is only a process of recollection.

If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

The secret of success is constancy to purpose.

Sometimes I wonder why I’m a novelist right now. There is no definite career reason why I became a writer. Something happened, and I became a writer. And now I’m a successful writer.