If my future were determined just by my performance on a standardized test, I wouldn’t be here. I guarantee you that.

Competitions are a business, first and foremost.

A lot of people are focused on taking over the world or doing the biggest thing and getting the most users. I think part of making a difference and doing something cool is focusing intensely.

The value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question. But I want to be clear: I’m not trying to be anyone’s savior. I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.

I’m not a fortune-teller.

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.

In the United States, I am a great success, but I am not a celebrity.

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.

Crime when it succeeds is called virtue.

Well done is better than well said.

When you come to my show, I want it to feel like opera, like a theatre.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

I get so excited when a song I wrote that’s very personal to me goes No. 1 and I look down and see people singing the words back to me.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

All great achievements require time.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

I felt unhappy and trapped. If I left baseball, where could I go, what could I do to earn enough money to help my mother and to marry Rachel? The solution to my problem was only days away in the hands of a tough, shrewd, courageous man called Branch Rickey, the president of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known.

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

I think a big test we all face in life on a regular basis is that discouragement test. Life’s not always fair, but I believe if you keep doing the right thing, God will get you to where you are.

I think Himalayan climbers tend to mature fairly late. I think most of the successful Himalayan climbers have ranged from 28 to just over 40, really.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

I’m reasonably optimistic about the future, especially the future of the United States – for the century, at least.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

I’m really happy and had such an amazing time performing at Super Bowl – wish I could relive it all over again.

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

By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

I think it’s healthy for a person to be nervous. It means you care – that you work hard and want to give a great performance. You just have to channel that nervous energy into the show.

The smart thing in the art world is to have one good idea and never have another.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

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

Small aim is a crime; have great aim.

Dissents speak to a future age.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

Honor means that a man is not exceptional; fame, that he is. Fame is something which must be won; honor, only something which must not be lost.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

The joy of doing well as a batsman for your country is much more than that little joy of going for a party and enjoying music. It is a completely different high, and I get high by performances. That’s what I enjoy now.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Your successes and happiness are forgiven you only if you generously consent to share them.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

The past is prophetic in that it asserts loudly that wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

The mind that is anxious about the future is miserable.

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.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

I went on all over the States, ranting poems to enthusiastic audiences that, the week before, had been equally enthusiastic about lectures on Railway Development or the Modern Turkish Essay.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

What one has to do usually can be done.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.