I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

So, for example, a country was into recession right after I was sworn in, a dot-com bust had taken place. Then the attacks of September the 11th, and then of course the great financial meltdown in the -the fundamental question facing any presidency is how do you deal with the hand you’re dealt?

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

In the world today many people rightfully feel entitled to have success and the good things in life, but they usually understand it will require sacrifice and hard work.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.

When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

Be careful what you set your heart upon – for it will surely be yours.

Don’t be a spectator, don’t let life pass you by.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

Nobody can hurt me without my permission.

‚They‘ are the people that don’t believe in you, that say that you won’t succeed. We stay away from ‚They.‘

The key to winning is choosing to do God’s will and loving others with all you’ve got.

If everything was perfect, you would never learn and you would never grow.

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

People’s blessings give you the power to work tirelessly. The only thing required is commitment.

What one has to do usually can be done.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

We will all fail in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at a thing doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit trying.

I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

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.

There are going to be good days and bad days. Bottom line.

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

I’m chasing perfection.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there’s the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn’t do it the way somebody told you to do it.

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

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten there’s any other way.

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

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

The right man is the one who seizes the moment.

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

Everybody has a purpose.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

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

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.