In my opinion, rankings are a very fickle measurement of one’s success and it is best to not get carried away by it.

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Surface R&B doesn’t work any more. The whole heartthrob thing, songs about unrealistic love and tearing your shirt off every show – that’s not really where it’s at any more. It’s becoming harder for those guys to sell records, and harder for them to succeed.

Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

Success is the child of audacity.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

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

If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.

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%.

I don’t know who I touch and who I don’t. I work hard trying to make people laugh. I try to do the kind of stuff that made me laugh growing up. I don’t have any secrets. I don’t know the reasons I’ve been so well received.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

Love is the answer to everything. It’s the only reason to do anything. If you don’t write stories you love, you’ll never make it. If you don’t write stories that other people love, you’ll never make it.

If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

We can come to look upon the deaths of our enemies with as much regret as we feel for those of our friends, namely, when we miss their existence as witnesses to our success.

My songs are the door to every dream I’ve ever had and every success I’ve ever achieved.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

Everything I have, my career, my success, my family, I owe to America.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

I think as long as I do a good job and put in all my effort to proving that I’m worth it, then everything should be fine.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

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.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

You start to become successful, and everybody starts to drive your money train to the bank, and they’re not thinking anymore about what you want as an artist or if any of that even matters to you. It genuinely upsets people in my life that I don’t care about money, and that’s not my problem.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

There is a soak-the-rich attitude in the air, a feeling that if you have a lot of money you must have got it by some ghastly means. I can quite happily say there was never any family money. All the money we got was mine, just from writing books.

I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‚Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.‘

Opportunity dances with those already on the dance floor.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

Wood burns because it has the proper stuff in it; and a man becomes famous because he has the proper stuff in him.

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.

Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.

If someone has a really great boyfriend or career, I think, it’s cool that happens.

I never ask anyone else’s opinion. They don’t count.

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.

There is no way to prosperity, prosperity is the way.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

But, you know, you can’t be a star at home.

In business, success often depends upon the relative age of your ideas.

To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.

Only stupid people are changed by success.

There’s a silly notion that failure’s not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.

Even the best and biggest teams in the world do not reach finals of tournaments.

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.