I never got into training to be an All-Ireland boxing champ or to win a belt. At the start, I just got into it to learn how to defend myself when I got into situations.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

In difficult times, we’re not supposed to quit believing; we’re not supposed to quit growing.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

Posture for combat is so vital.

My favorite affirmation when I feel stuck or out of sorts is: Whatever I need is already here, and it is all for my highest good. Jot this down and post it conspicuously throughout your home, on the dashboard of your car, at your office, on your microwave oven, and even in front of your toilets!

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.

Never have we stolen the intelligences of other peoples. On the contrary, in Cuba we have trained tens of thousands of doctors and other top-level professionals, for free, in order to send them back to their own countries.

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

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?

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

When I was in Portugal I hardly played six-or-seven matches. Although I would train daily to keep my shape. Even then it was really difficult when I came back to get in shape and represent my country.

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.

An unused life is an early death.

At the end of 2003, my game was complete. Shooting, defense, using the dribble, transition, midrange stuff was all there. Then it was about fine-tuning and trying to improve in each area.

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

I do believe in self-help.

Colombia has been the leading western recipient of U.S. arms and training as violence has grown through the ’90s.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

The army teaches boys to think like men.

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.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

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

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

Enthusiasm is the most important thing in life.

Man is not made for defeat.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer to your goal.

Love to everybody who is out there progressing and taking things to the next level.

If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more. Especially when it comes to entertaining.

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 explain the law of compensation like this: ‚Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

When I wake up, I expect things to be good. If they’re not, then I try to set about trying to make them as good as I can ‚cause I know I’m gonna have to live that day anyway. So why not try to make the most of it if you can? Some days, they pan out a little better than others, but you still gotta always just try.

The greatest difficulty always comes right before the birth of a dream.

If a subject excites us, if it stirs our deepest curiosity, or if we have to learn because the stakes are high, we pay much more attention. What we absorb sinks in.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

You might win some, you might lose some. But you go in, you challenge yourself, you become a better man, a better individual, a better fighter.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

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

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

I pity the fool who just gives up.

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.