I was the kid that was the 199th pick that never had the body for it. People didn’t think I’d play one year in the NFL, and now I’m going on my 17th year.

I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.

I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Let my skin and sinews and bones dry up, together with all the flesh and blood of my body! I welcome it! But I will not move from this spot until I have attained the supreme and final wisdom.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

Books are sharks… because sharks have been around for a very long time. There were sharks before there were dinosaurs, and the reason sharks are still in the ocean is that nothing is better at being a shark than a shark.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

Under the worst conditions, horrendous conditions, people still, you know, fight for their rights and don’t just succumb.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

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.

We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it.

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

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

I’m gonna be making records anyway, even if I had to sell ‚em out of the trunk of my car. I’m that kind of musician and singer.

It isn’t sufficient just to want – you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

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.

If you deserve it, go get it.

The battle is all over except the ‚shouting‘ when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

I’m an all-or-nothing kind of guy, I guess.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

If at first you don’t succeed… so much for skydiving.

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

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.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

I’m convinced that no one can amount to a damn in the arts if he becomes sweetly reasonable, seeing all sides of a picture, forgiving all sins.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.

I never expect to lose. Even when I’m the underdog, I still prepare a victory speech.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

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.

How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you, and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.

I don’t want to be an action star; action star’s life is so short. I want my life to get longer. I want my career to get longer.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

I was a fighting machine with a will of iron.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

I promise you, I will have something on the Internet that is game-changing. I can’t lose.

Those who say it can’t be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life.

You always want to quit while you are ahead. You don’t want to be like a fighter who stays too long in the ring until you’re not performing at your best.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.