I just owe almost everything to my father and it’s passionately interesting for me that the things that I learned in a small town, in a very modest home, are just the things that I believe have won the election.

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

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.

Surely our job while we’re here on Earth is to learn about the world, not to create parallel universes.

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

My father used to wear the same pants for like a week.

Imagine your family finally making it from nothing to something, and finally getting things going, and finally buying a beautiful house and taking care of your children – and the next day, it’s completely all gone. Zero. Boom. Flat broke. So that’s when I had to man up.

I’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.

I think Himalayan climbers tend to mature fairly late. I think most of the successful Himalayan climbers have ranged from 28 to just over 40, really.

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.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

Remember that no relationship is a total waste of time. You can always learn something about yourself.

Academic qualifications are important and so is financial education. They’re both important and schools are forgetting one of them.

I try to use my experience and the fact that I grew up in the ghetto – I tell people you don’t have to rob or steal to get out of the ghetto.

Without failure there is no achievement.

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.

As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.

The U.S.S. George H. W. Bush is a great thing in my life. It’s amazing. A great honor.

Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.

I’d sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

A man should always consider how much he has more than he wants.

Everything we touch in our daily lives, including our body, is a miracle. By putting the kingdom of god in the right place, it shows us it is possible to live happily right here, right now.

My life turned out to be beyond my greatest dreams.

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.

The harder I work, the luckier I become.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated.

We will be more successful in all our endeavors if we can let go of the habit of running all the time, and take little pauses to relax and re-center ourselves. And we’ll also have a lot more joy in living.

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

Let man live at a distance from God, and the universe remains neutral or hostile to him. But let man believe in God, and immediately all around him the elements, even the irksome, of the inevitable organize themselves into a friendly whole, ordered to the ultimate success of life.

But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.

Success in its highest and noblest form calls for peace of mind and enjoyment and happiness which come only to the man who has found the work that he likes best.

My problem is I am Christian, so I think other people must have success, too; it’s not about me.

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

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.

I try to look on all the great things God’s done, and not focus on the negative. It’s a perspective.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. For to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves – and the better the teacher, the better the student body.

However great may be the work for which we are responsible, we will always do well if we pause to spend time in sacred praise.

I’m healthy as can be – not an ache or a pain. A lot of my prayer is thanking the Lord that I am healthy. I pray for long life and good health.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.

Some people, they take their form of working out as a religion that they think is better than everyone else’s. I’m not like that. If you have a better way to work out, and you can teach it to me, and I find it to be useful and gets me in better shape, I’m all about.

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults.