In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.

I want people to draw strength from me.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

If you get knocked down – setbacks in life, like applying for a job if they don’t hire you – keep trying, keep getting up, keep doing it.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

You know, not to sound corny or nuthin‘, but I felt like a fighter comin‘ up, man. I felt like, you know, I’m being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

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

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

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

If you’re waiting for the perfect moment, you’ll never write a thing because it will never arrive. I have no routine. I have no foolproof anything. There’s nothing foolproof.

I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.

‚Your Erroneous Zones’ was the book that went over the top simply because I believed in it so much.

The same thing I did in 2013 is what I’m trying to do in 2014, which is continue to improve, continue to shock people. You know, I have several projects coming up between 2014 and 2015, and hopefully by 2015, I’ll have another hour of stand-up material where I’ll be able to go on the road and tour again.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

I teach children to be winners.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

While still working for others, your goal at some point must be to carve out little areas that you can operate on your own, cultivating entrepreneurial skills.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

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

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

In action a great heart is the chief qualification. In work, a great head.

It’s a rule to give all, and it can make the difference if you work more. If you don’t have to give all, and you still win, what’s this?

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn’t need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

Of course it would be nice for everybody and myself if we could win but we can still have a personal or a team win if we achieve a target that is effectively a win for us.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.

The answer to all writing, to any career for that matter, is love.

I don’t know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope. Causing people to have better relationships. I’m not leading them to some false God or something like that.

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

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

It’s really easy to have a nice philosophy about openness, but moving the world in that direction is a different thing. It requires both understanding where you want to go and being pragmatic about getting there.

Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.

For every disciplined effort there is a multiple reward.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

Fight with a happy heart.

The U. S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

The challenge is to stay cool enough to handle the pressure in the moment so that you can succeed in the future.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.