I focus on my own job.

Cowardice… is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend functioning of the imagination.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

It’s not an easy course. It’s not designed to be. We’re not here to get you in touch with your inner child.

I am a grafter.

If you wish to forget anything on the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

The unassuming youth seeking instruction with humility gains good fortune.

Indeed, it is as important to learn how to receive a blessing as it is to be willing to give one.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

Reactive people… are often affected by their physical environment. They find external sources to blame for their behavior.

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

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

I tell people, and it’s the truth, I could sit in my garage for a week and it won’t make me a car. And you can sit in church till your bottom is flat and that won’t make you a servant of Christ.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

With ideas it is like with dizzy heights you climb: At first they cause you discomfort and you are anxious to get down, distrustful of your own powers; but soon the remoteness of the turmoil of life and the inspiring influence of the altitude calm your blood; your step gets firm and sure and you begin to look – for dizzier heights.

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

Your Highest Self only wants you to be at peace. It does not judge, compare, or demand that you defeat anyone or be better than anyone.

Reproach is shame, blame, disgrace, disapproval and a disrespectful attitude toward yourself. When you’re under reproach, your behavior shows it.

When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.

You can live your life angry, bitter, mad at somebody or even guilty, not letting go of your own mistakes, but you won’t receive the good things God has in store.

When you make a mistake and the devil comes and tells you ‚You’re no good,‘ you don’t have to take on the guilt and condemnation he wants to put on you. No! You can immediately confess your mistake to God, thank Him for forgiving you and cleansing you with the blood of Jesus, and move forward in the victory of His grace and forgiveness.

I didn’t know how to deal with success. If there was a Rock Star 101, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me.

If I see something sagging, bagging or dragging I’ll get it nipped, tucked or sucked.

I think you get most of the most interesting work done in fields where people don’t think they’re doing art but are merely practicing a craft and working as good craftsmen. Being literate as a writer is good craft, is knowing your job, is knowing how to use your tools properly and not to damage the tools as you use them.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance.

My whole thing now is I know how to think properly to be successful in all aspects of my life. It’s not about ultra running or being a SEAL or pull-up records: it’s about if you want to be better you, have to change your perceived limitations and take the barriers down.

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

They say somebody’s ‚street smart.‘ I feel like, if I got intelligence, it’s just a country smart.

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

An elusive, enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contradictory within you.

I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person. It’s a pretty good test.

Better is the enemy of good.

We learned about dignity and decency – that how hard you work matters more than how much you make… that helping others means more than just getting ahead yourself.

I always try to be smart. I try to treat all the money I’m making like it’s the last time I’m going to make it.

The right-wingers don’t want to admit that for some people, there are no jobs; they think that conscientiousness in and of itself will do the trick.

If your treat an individual… as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.

I was a kind of hyper-intense person in my twenties and very impatient.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

Truly it is an evil to be full of faults; but it is a still greater evil to be full of them and to be unwilling to recognize them, since that is to add the further fault of a voluntary illusion.

You have to come to your closed doors before you get to your open doors… What if you knew you had to go through 32 closed doors before you got to your open door? Well, then you’d come to closed door number eight and you’d think, ‚Great, I got another one out of the way’… Keep moving forward.

I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

Character is destiny.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

You cannot see the changes that you’re dreaming about, because they’re internal.

Self-respect knows no considerations.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

The pleasure of work is open to anyone who can develop some specialised skill, provided that he can get satisfaction from the exercise of his skill without demanding universal applause.

Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.

Vanity can create a very cruel space for you if you don’t know how to manage it.

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

I’m not this horrible, evil person.

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.