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

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

Follow that will and that way which experience confirms to be your own.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?

I built a label at the same time I built a career.

Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill. Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

I couldn’t have written things like ‚Low‘ and ‚Heroes,‘ those particular albums, if it hadn’t have been for Berlin and the kind of atmosphere I felt there.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

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

To do the same thing over and over again is not only boredom: it is to be controlled by rather than to control what you do.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

Desire is the very essence of man.

There’s something about being in front of a live audience that’s fun. It’s a really interesting, very electric, very alive, and intense experience, and you can’t get it anywhere else. And I’ve been doing it since I was 23, so it’s part of my being – it’s part of my fabric as a person.

If there be no enemy there’s no fight. If no fight, no victory and if no victory there is no crown.

I enjoy competition. I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

I think that once you’ve had a few No. 1s in your career that you’ve kind of proven yourself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything anymore.

No one has the right to be sorry for himself for a misfortune that strikes everyone.

The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

I’ve never been a boyfriend kind of girl.

For a long time, I thought I was ugly and disfigured. This made me shy and timid, and I often reacted to insults that were not intended.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

We work to become, not to acquire.

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin – find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

If my edge is dull, my sword is dull, and I don’t want to fight another guy whose sword is dull. If you’ve got two steel swords going back and forth hitting each other, what’s gonna happen? Both of them are going to get sharper. Everybody that’s in the industry has lost their edge.

Learned helplessness is the giving-up reaction, the quitting response that follows from the belief that whatever you do doesn’t matter.

We must, all of us, learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise.

The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life, which is impossible to the pure egoist.

Life is an exciting business, and most exciting when it is lived for others.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

All my life I’ve been taught how to die, but no one ever taught me how to grow old.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

Carry the battle to them. Don’t let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don’t ever apologize for anything.

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

My favorite thing in life is writing about life, specifically the parts of life concerning love. Because, as far as I’m concerned, love is absolutely everything.

I learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.

When you realize who you live for, and who’s important to please, a lot of people will actually start living. I am never going to get caught up in that. I’m gonna look back on my life and say that I enjoyed it – and I lived it for me.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

If you look at anyone who has achieved great success and wealth, people like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or Lance Armstrong, they have all focused intensely in order to win.

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

We rarely confide in those who are better than we are.

What good are fans? You can’t eat applause for breakfast. You can’t sleep with it.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

One of my goals from really early on was that if I was ever fortunate enough to be successful in music, I would want to stay the same person and the same songwriter.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

One of my proudest moments is I didn’t sell my soul for the sake of popularity.

A boy carries out suggestions more wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

If you continue to keep low performers on your team, that are actually dragging the team down; you’re failing the whole team, and eventually, the whole team is going to fail.

I think I’ve developed, as many people do, this sense of, ‚Don’t say the wrong thing, or else people will point at you and laugh.‘

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.