I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.

Those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory.

Football is a team game and none can survive or excel without the help of the other.

Purposes, plans, and achievements of men may all disappear like yon cloud upon the mountain’s summit; but, like the mountain itself, the things which are of God shall stand fast for ever and ever.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

A #2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere.

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

A pint of sweat, saves a gallon of blood.

Surface R&B doesn’t work any more. The whole heartthrob thing, songs about unrealistic love and tearing your shirt off every show – that’s not really where it’s at any more. It’s becoming harder for those guys to sell records, and harder for them to succeed.

Success is not a stop sign.

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.

We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

Life is either a great adventure or nothing.

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?

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.

Riches don’t make a man rich, they only make him busier.

When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.

Often people become our friend or follower with an undercurrent of resentment in our having more success than they have. They secretly desire the opportunity to take us down a notch; they have a nose for any misstep on our part they can exploit.

You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed.

This industry has been really good to me. It’s been a great life. I’m not through yet. I’m ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

To be admitted to Nature’s hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.

A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the U.S.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

I set up situations that involve abandoning control and finding out what happens.

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.

It is extremely difficult to say how long the process actually took to finally achieve my fragrance, Boudoir, because there was a lot of time waiting around for other people.

Africa is probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

I wasn’t born a natural entrepreneur. I had to be trained.

I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

If you’re going to be a winner in life, you have to constantly go beyond your best.