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

Genius, when young, is divine.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

I’m inspired by Walt Disney. I’m inspired by Howard Hughes. I’m inspired by Henry Ford. I’m inspired by Steve Jobs. I mean, I’m inspired by James Perse.

I guess I’m living in the present more than the past.

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.

The more you seek the uncomfortable, the more you will become comfortable.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man’s own eyes when they look upon his own person.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

Some virtues are only seen in affliction and others only in prosperity.

I have the ’77 Million Paintings‘ running in my studio a lot of the time. Occasionally I’ll look up from what I’m doing and I think, ‚God, I’ve never seen anything like that before!‘ And that’s a real thrill.

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

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.

I invented my life by taking for granted that everything I did not like would have an opposite, which I would like.

As your career grows, the list of things that makes you happy should not become smaller, it should become bigger.

A lot was accomplished in my mixtape career. But I still needed a few things: I needed to be recognized. I need to have radio. I need to have a real retail machine that can get us where we need to get that.

In fact, my courage and my bravery at a young age was the thing I was bullied for, a kind of ‚Who do you think you are?‘

All the awards in the world, you can get into all the nightclubs, they’ll send you the nicest clothes. Nothing better than walking into your dad’s restaurant and seeing a smile on his face and knowing that your mom and dad and your sister are real proud of you.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

Cast away your sloth, your lethargy, your coldness, or whatever interferes with your chaste and pure love for Christ, your soul’s husband. Make Him the source, the center, and the circumference of all your soul’s range of delight.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

I’ve accomplished enough with the music that I haven’t had to go out there and do other things to over-saturate.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

If you have passion, there is no need for excuses because your enthusiasm will trump any negative reasoning you might come up with. Enthusiasm makes excuses a nonissue.

I think the message has already been sent to Hollywood, which is that this kid’s a hard worker, he’s talented, and people are coming out to see him. And when you have box-office results, Hollywood treats you different. Hollywood stands up.

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Some days I totally appreciate everything that’s happening to me, and some days I feel everyone’s waiting for me to mess up.

The power of intuitive understanding will protect you from harm until the end of your days.

What I have in common with the character in ‚Truman‘ is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.

I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.

No matter what has happened to you in the past or what is going on in your life right now, it has no power to keep you from having an amazingly good future if you will walk by faith in God. God loves you! He wants you to live with victory over sin so you can possess His promises for your life today!

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

I’m no genius.

Who had deceived thee so often as thyself?

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

Of all acts of man repentance is the most divine. The greatest of all faults is to be conscious of none.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

You practice mindfulness, on the one hand, to be calm and peaceful. On the other hand, as you practice mindfulness and live a life of peace, you inspire hope for a future of peace.

Some men never feel small, but these are the few men who are.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

Those who know me know I’m passionate about lists, and top of my list of priorities is my family. My wife Joan and I do not consider our legacy to our children to be wealth or fame but the opportunity to pursue happiness by following their own path.

In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o’clock in the morning, day after day.

I believe that each of us comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid.

Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.

The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

A good model of how to ‚work with the enemy‘ internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.

There are certain things that bother me and certain things that don’t. Personal attacks on me? I think I’m just so used to it.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.

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.

One advantage in keeping a diary is that you become aware with reassuring clarity of the changes which you constantly suffer.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘