If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

It kills me to lose. If I’m a troublemaker, and I don’t think that my temper makes me one, then it’s because I can’t stand losing. That’s the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.

My drive is other people’s success.

If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course, you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place, you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

I identify myself as a hustler since I was a young kid.

A lot of people ask me, ‚How did you have the courage to walk up to record labels when you were 12 or 13 and jump right into the music industry?‘ It’s because I knew I could never feel the kind of rejection that I felt in middle school. Because in the music industry, if they’re gonna say no to you, at least they’re gonna be polite about it.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.

When I say something’s going to happen, it’s going to happen.

Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.

If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.

If you lose a big fight, it will worry you all of your life. It will plague you – until you get your revenge.

You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you have never had the courage to commit.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Success isn’t supposed to happen, no matter how hard you work. There’s no guarantee you’re going to succeed. There’s nothing set in stone.

The most important thing is to try and inspire people so that they can be great in whatever they want to do.

I don’t get up, get dressed, go out, and think, ‚Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.‘

No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.

We can take a ‚It was hard to get there.‘ But we ain’t taking no loss. We’re going to win.

True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.

‚Suffering should not make us bitter people,‘ my mother once said, ‚it should make us better comforters.‘ Young people need to hear this from those who have walked before them, because someday they’ll be walking those same steps, but there may not be anyone following behind.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‚I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.‘

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.

A jug fills drop by drop.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.

Be a player; don’t play yourself. And don’t play basketball. That’s not your sport, Jeb Bush.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Doing is the great thing, for if people resolutely do what is right, they come in time to like doing it.

Indeed, we’re strongest when the face of America isn’t only a soldier carrying a gun but also a diplomat negotiating peace, a Peace Corps volunteer bringing clean water to a village, or a relief worker stepping off a cargo plane as floodwaters rise.

When I was a young man, Dirac was my hero. He made a breakthrough, a new method of doing physics. He had the courage to simply guess at the form of an equation, the equation we now call the Dirac equation, and to try to interpret it afterwards.

Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‚Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.‘ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

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.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

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.

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

My mother was a very wonderful woman. When she and my dad divorced, she moved to California and worked two jobs in the cannery at night and as a waitress during the day. But she saved enough money to establish a restaurant.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.

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.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

People have to understand one thing: at the age of 18, I arrived at a dream club like Manchester United. It was a dream come true. But, even at that moment, I was thinking about playing in England for some years and then going to play in Spain. Even at that time I was thinking that way, and I always gave 100% everything.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

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.

I have a hat. It is graceful and feminine and give me a certain dignity, as if I were attending a state funeral or something. Someday I may get up enough courage to wear it, instead of carrying it.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

In a false quarrel there is no true valor.

The greatest story of all is Colonel Sanders. He didn’t start until he was sixty-six on a freeway bypass for his chicken shop. Anything is possible!

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.