If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dream.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

Only stupid people are changed by success.

I’m always cast in these strange men… that’s not me, really.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

By indignities men come to dignities.

Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don’t complain.

The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

The older I get, the better I understand that every day is a gift.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life.

I am being frank about myself in this book. I tell of my first mistake on page 850.

We don’t laugh because we’re happy – we’re happy because we laugh.

I’ve been reckless, but I’m not a rebel without a cause.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

When one does away with oneself one does the most estimable thing possible: one thereby almost deserves to live.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.

Whenever I’m around some who is modest, I think, ‚Run like hell and all of fire.‘ You don’t want modesty, you want humility.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

God has already done everything He’s going to do. The ball is now in your court. If you want success, if you want wisdom, if you want to be prosperous and healthy, you’re going to have to do more than meditate and believe; you must boldly declare words of faith and victory over yourself and your family.

People don’t usually compliment your character.

I’m gonna go hard no matter what because I gotta feed my family, and I gotta feed myself.

In a gentle way, you can shake the world.

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

The one way to get me to work my hardest was to doubt me.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.

There are trees of a thousand sorts, and all have their several fruits; and I feel the most unhappy man in the world not to know them, for I am well assured that they are all valuable. I bring home specimens of them, and also of the land.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

What one has to do usually can be done.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

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

The idea that to make a man work you’ve got to hold gold in front of his eyes is a growth, not an axiom. We’ve done that for so long that we’ve forgotten there’s any other way.

We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.

Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.

God has entrusted me with myself.

I’m afraid to fail again.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

I was so rude when I was a little girl.

I am sure there’s going to be times when I do things wrong that no one’s going to like and everyone’s going to think I’m terrible and rubbish but I know I’m going to go through those times, and it’s just about understanding that that’s going to happen.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

The self is hateful.

Every time you think the problem is ‚out there,‘ that very thought is the problem.

For some reason I did something where I realized I could get a reaction. That was when I broke out of my shell at school, because I really didn’t have any friends or anything like that and I just kind of was going along, and then finally I did this zany thing, and all of a sudden I had tons of friends.

People who don’t know the true character of God – who don’t believe He is merciful, gracious and slow to anger – can never have a close, personal, intimate relationship with Him.

Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough.

Be as you wish to seem.

I was in a terrible mess in my childhood.

Everyone is different. Everyone has different teams they’ve played on, coaches they’ve played for.

I made my fair share of mistakes.

Things do not always happen the way I would like them to happen, and I had better get used to that.

My old drama coach used to say, ‚Don’t just do something, stand there.‘ Gary Cooper wasn’t afraid to do nothing.

The greatest happiness is to know the source of unhappiness.

When nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.