If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

Years ago I met Richard Burton in Port Talbot, my home town, and afterwards he passed in his car with his wife, and I thought, ‚I want to get out and become like him‘. Not because of Wales, because I love Wales, but because I was so limited as a child at school and so bereft and lonely, and I thought becoming an actor would do that.

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.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

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

Everyone I look up to is bringing me into the tech world. You’d be surprised by all the music people in it, invested in it.

All of us are mentors. You’re mentors right here and now. And one of the things I’ve always done throughout my life, I have always found that person, that group of people that I was going to reach my hand out and help bring them along with me.

In difficult times, we’re not supposed to quit believing; we’re not supposed to quit growing.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

Before all else, be armed.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

A goal is a dream with a deadline.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

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.

Writing is like a ‚lust,‘ or like ‚scratching when you itch.‘ Writing comes as a result of a very strong impulse, and when it does come, I, for one, must get it out.

A wise ruler ought never to keep faith when by doing so it would be against his interests.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, ‚No, I’m just going to write what I feel I should write.‘

Above anything else, I hate to lose.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

Life is a song to me.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

When I prepare, I am not messing around. I find the right places, the right people, and the right environment. Iceland is one of those places.

The greatest thrill in my life was to represent the United States of America.

While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.

When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.

I hope that people around the world will be as inspired as I am to step up and to speak out on behalf of girls around the world who struggle to go to school.

Some single mind must be master, else there will be no agreement in anything.

There’s no political point worth my son’s life.

I will do this job as long as I feel that I can do it full steam.

Writing is a dreadful labor, yet not so dreadful as Idleness.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

I’m not an ambitious person, there is no ambition in my life. I have a mission in my life. And my mission is to serve my country. And when I am working for my state, it means I am working for my country, or my nation.

Vanity is great motivation, to be fair.

You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.

Success is like reaching an important birthday and finding you’re exactly the same.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

Men do not shape destiny, Destiny produces the man for the hour.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

We need someone with superb judgement in their own right because, yes, a president can hire the best advisors on Earth, but I guarantee you this: Five advisors will give five different opinions. And it is the president – and the president alone – who always makes the final call.

To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.

The authority you establish must emerge naturally from your character, from the particular strengths you possess.

In my career as a director, there’s always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: ‚What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?‘ At that time you have to say: ‚OK, forget that and just go ahead.‘

The honor of a nation is its life.

I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.

To the person with a firm purpose all men and things are servants.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

Tomorrow, every Fault is to be amended; but that Tomorrow never comes.

My mother was a full-time mother. She didn’t have much of her own career, her own life, her own experiences… everything was for her children. I will never be as good a mother as she was. She was just grace incarnate. She was the most generous, loving – she’s better than me.

We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

From wonder into wonder existence opens.