I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

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

I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

Either you run the day or the day runs you.

If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘

Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

Sure it’s a big job; but I don’t know anyone who can do it better than I can.

Fun is one of the most important – and underrated – ingredients in any successful venture. If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.

Life is just one damned thing after another.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

You see things; and you say ‚Why?‘ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‚Why not?‘

That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

Failure means a stripping away of the inessential.

Never be ashamed! There’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth bothering with.

Where the mind goes, the man follows.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

People want to tear me down, they were going to knife me anyway.

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

You are going to let the fear of poverty govern you life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.

I have worked hard since my childhood and worked as a labourer. I put my mind and heart into it.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Remorse sleeps during prosperity but awakes bitter consciousness during adversity.

When I was 8 years old I became a mute and was a mute until I was 13, and I thought of my whole body as an ear, so I can go into a crowd and sit still and absorb all sound. That talent or ability has lasted and served me until today.

You know, there is always times where you feel discouraged and things coming against you, but I don’t know if I ever wanted to throw in the towel.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

Better to fight for something than live for nothing.

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

Your life is like a play with several acts. Some of the characters who enter have short roles to play, others, much larger. Some are villains and others are good guys. But all of them are necessary; otherwise, they wouldn’t be in the play. Embrace them all, and move on to the next act.

The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.

You have people come into your life shockingly and surprisingly. You have losses that you never thought you’d experience. You have rejection and you have learn how to deal with that and how to get up the next day and go on with it.

The best way out is always through.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

If we’re really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what’s causing us to do what we do.

One mustn’t close one’s eyes to difficulty and to shortcomings; the more one recognizes them, the less they upset one.

Don’t let your ego get too close to your position, so that if your position gets shot down, your ego doesn’t go with it.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.