I remember they used to tell me, they said, ‚Khaled, you can’t get a Rolls-Royce; you need to get one of them small ones.‘ So I went and bought a Phantom.

I can do whatever I want.

My success isn’t a result of arrogance – it’s a result of belief.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

I had writer’s block for almost a year.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

I never expected any sort of success with ‚Mockingbird’… I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement.

When schools flourish, all flourishes.

I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

While we may lose heart, we never have to lose hope.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

I feel impressed to counsel those engaged in personal challenges to do right. In particular, my heart reaches out to those who feel discouraged by the magnitude of their struggle.

One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

When we make progress quickly, it feeds our emotions. Then, when there’s a period of waiting or we hit a plateau, we find out how committed we really are and whether we’re going to see things through to the finish or quit.

Don’t be a writer; it’s a terrible way to live your life. There’s nothing to be gained from it but poverty and obscurity and solitude. So if you have a taste for all those things, which means that you really are burning to do it, then go ahead and do it. But don’t expect anything from anybody.

Success isn’t always about greatness. It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.

It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.

I like money, but it’s never been about the money.

I’m pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people’s bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.

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

Of course, ‚I Will Always Love You‘ is the biggest song so far in my career. I’m famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.

Nobody climbs mountains for scientific reasons. Science is used to raise money for the expeditions, but you really climb for the hell of it.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

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

You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed – you’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

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

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

As a producer, as a CEO of Hartbeat Productions, I am making deals to put my company in place to win, to put my staff to work so that while all this stuff is going on, they’re in the kitchen cooking. So it’s understanding the longevity of the entertainment business; you get out of it what you put into it.

A gypsy told me I was going to do great things. I was going to make all kinds of money.

I won at every level – all the way since I started playing the game of basketball at nine. I’ve won at every level, won championships at every level. And, you know, it won’t be fulfilled until I win at the highest level.

You’ve really got to start hitting the books because it’s no joke out here.

Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they’re worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.

I will be unhappy if I know I have not accomplished something I should have done that was possible.

I think when smallpox was eliminated, the whole world got pretty excited about that because it’s just such a dramatic success.

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

Only the guy who isn’t rowing has time to rock the boat.

Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

We named the book ‚Extreme Ownership‘ because we really found that when we looked at not only at leaders but at teams that were the most successful, we found that the ones that had this attitude of extreme ownership were the ones that did the best, and it’s definitely an attitude that I had.

It’s a rule to give all, and it can make the difference if you work more. If you don’t have to give all, and you still win, what’s this?

It’s much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won’t keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don’t know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we’ve got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, ‚Is this it? Are we still relevant?‘

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

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you’re doomed; you’re finished.

I just feel like, with rappers, there’s so much complacency. It’s like, ‚Oh, I’m a rapper. I’m successful. I make money. That’s all that matters.‘ But there’s a lot of stuff going on in the world. Whether or not you’re aware of it, it’s happening.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.