If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Do I have chocolate chip cookies? Yes, I do. Do I have mint chocolate chip milkshakes? Yes, I do. I love them. They are fantastic. But when I have them, they’re worth it. I earned them. I did something. I worked out super hard. I stayed clean on food.

We should be too big to take offense and too noble to give it.

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

I am not designed to come second or third. I am designed to win.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

I was a housewife, so I learned to write in times off, and I don’t think I ever gave it up, though there were times when I was very discouraged because I began to see that the stories I was writing were not very good, that I had a lot to learn, and that it was a much, much harder job than I had expected.

Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

No man should bring children into the world who is unwilling to persevere to the end in their nature and education.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Overcoming fear is the first step to success for entrepreneurs. The winners all exemplify that, and the hard work and commitment they have shown underlines what is needed to set up a business.

So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.

When I grow up, I want to be like Balvin.

Those who believe that they are exclusively in the right are generally those who achieve something.

It’s never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

When I was five, I think, that’s when I started wanting to be an actress. I loved to play. I didn’t like the world around me because it was kind of grim, but I loved to play house. It was like you could make your own boundaries.

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

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

If you want special results, you have to feel special things and do special things together. You can speak about spirit, or you can live it.

You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.

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.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

The successful men I admired all built their bodies.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

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.

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

I teach children to be winners.

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

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Everybody that I was in school with had an uncle or father in the law, and I started to realize that I was going to end up writing briefs for about ten years for these fellows who I thought I was smarter than. And I was kind of losing my feeling for that.

Many times, we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

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.

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day.

It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.

Frustration is a sign I am acting independently. The more you try your own way, the tighter the doors will stay closed.

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

Do the duty which lies nearest to you, the second duty will then become clearer.

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’ve sat in sushi bars, really fine ones, and I know how hard this guy worked, how proud he is. I know you don’t need sauce. I know he doesn’t even want you to pour sauce. And I’ve seen customers come in and do that, and I’ve seen him, as stoic as he tries to remain, I’ve seen him die a little inside.

No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.

Work harder on yourself than you do on your job.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

I was an overnight sensation.