I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.

It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

The way I figured it, I was even with baseball and baseball with me. The game had done much for me, and I had done much for it.

If you dream the proper dreams, and share the myths with people, they will want to grow up to be like you.

I try to do the fancy things out there by going with both hands, making crossover moves, and having a certain creativity and flair to my game.

We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

The people who are doing the work are the moving force behind the Macintosh. My job is to create a space for them, to clear out the rest of the organization and keep it at bay.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

Never confuse motion with action.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

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.

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

I’m always afraid of failing. I have to quiet that fear if I’m going to get up in the morning.

I’ve had quite a lot of luck with dreams. I’ve often awoken in the night with a phrase or even a whole song in my head.

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

Every artist wants something different out the game.

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

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.

Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

Ego is only fine when it is working for your motivation.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser.

You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.

Everyone, no doubt, remains first and foremost a man of his own country and continues to draw from it his motive force.

I always entertain great hopes.

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Big results require big ambitions.

I am more than just a serious basketball fan. I am a life-long addict. I was addicted from birth, in fact, because I was born in Kentucky and I learned, early on, that Habitual Domination was a natural way of life.

Competition is a sin.

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

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

I tell my fellow reggaetoneros, keep giving it your all and bring more creativity.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

I’m always asked, ‚What’s the secret to success?‘ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

One must work and dare if one really wants to live.

I don’t think about that. I wasn’t a kid growing up saying one day I’ll get an Oscar and make a speech. That wasn’t on my mind. So what I do is the best work I can do.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

I don’t think you should spend your life praying for things, but I do believe you should thank God for what He’s given you… but I think the scripture teaches us that we can pray for our dreams, pray for the big things… he’s not a small God; this God is incredible.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

I have to keep improving myself and challenging myself.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

It doesn’t matter who you are – if you dream big and if you work really hard, you can achieve unimaginable results, and that’s really good for the nation.

Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football.

A lot was accomplished in my mixtape career. But I still needed a few things: I needed to be recognized. I need to have radio. I need to have a real retail machine that can get us where we need to get that.

When individual members of the team are highly disciplined, they can be trusted and, therefore, allowed to operate with very little oversight.