I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

As is the case with most people in this game, I am driven by financial motives and creative motives; the question I had to answer is which motive I will give priority to?

It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

I have the Midas touch, in the way that when I hook up with a project, I feel, not speaking cocky or conceited, but there’s a confidence I have. I learned that from Muhammad Ali; I used to bodyguard him. He taught me about confidence. So when it comes to any job I work, I’m gonna do it good; I’m going to bring it over the top.

The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

Being self-made means never making an excuse as to why you can’t take steps toward whatever your goal is.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

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.

Never mistake motion for action.

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

I’ll do whatever it takes to win games, whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel, handing a cup of water to a teammate, or hitting the game-winning shot.

Most employees only want to know how much they get paid and how much time off they get – they probably don’t have the mission in their souls.

There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

I’ve got a woman’s ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.

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

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

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

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.

I know I’m stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself. We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.

Personal success or personal satisfaction are not worth another thought if one does achieve them, or worth worrying about if they evade one or are slow in coming. All that is really worth while is action – faithful action, for the world, and in God.

I didn’t fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

Competition gives me energy. It keeps me focused.

To live without Hope is to Cease to live.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!

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.

Whenever you do something, people try to re-do it and do a better version, especially if they’re in another country.

In two decades I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it’s more dangerous to lose than to win.

I vividly remember a conversation I had many years ago in 1974, which marked a turning point in my leadership journey. I was sitting at a Holiday Inn with my friend, Kurt Campmeyer, when he asked me if I had a personal growth plan. I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even know you were supposed to have one.

I don’t want no handouts. I want to get it out the mud.

Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop.

What is once well done is done forever.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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

We should seek the greatest value of our action.

Ambition never is in a greater hurry than I; it merely keeps pace with circumstances and with my general way of thinking.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

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

Failure is nature’s plan to prepare you for great responsibilities.

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.

If you stop struggling, then you stop life.

It’s life isn’t it? You plow ahead and make a hit. And you plow on and someone passes you. Then someone passes them. Time levels.