In this knowledge-worker age, it’s now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs – so the pressure to do well is really high.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion.

Applause waits on success.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

What life half gives a man, posterity gives entirely.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

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

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.

Perseverance is also key to success in any endeavor, but without perseverance in combat, there can be no victory.

Music when healthy, is the teacher of perfect order, and when depraved, the teacher of perfect disorder.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Governor Romney has a great business background. He is extremely well educated. He has several degrees from Harvard, including, you know, business and including a law degree.

When I was in college my girl got me a job at the doctor’s office she was working at. I was a file clerk. No disrespect but I don’t think a man can do that job. It takes so much meticulous and precise file-keeping.

We are tired of aristocratic explanations in Harvard words.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

If I’d just tried for them dinky singles I could’ve batted around .600.

You have young men of color in many communities who are more likely to end up in jail or in the criminal justice system than they are in a good job or in college. And, you know, part of my job, that I can do, I think, without any potential conflicts, is to get at those root causes.

You have to be a bastard to make it, and that’s a fact. And the Beatles are the biggest bastards on earth.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

In any court-like environment of power, you will inevitably find people who are drawn to those who are successful or powerful, not out of admiration, but out of secret envy.

The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that’s making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?

Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.

I don’t really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

Madonna, I think, is the greatest visual musical artist that we’ve ever had. If you look at her photo log, the photographers that she was able to work with throughout her career framed her in the proper way. It was the proper context. It was that visual that made sure that everything was gonna cut through in a certain way.

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.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down.

They know enough who know how to learn.

I was offered a job on Wall Street by my uncle. But I wanted to get out. Make-it-on-my-own kinda thing.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does he should do with all his might.

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

People with clear, written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

I liked school, but I used to dread those moments when the teacher would call me up to give an oral report. I forced myself to deal with it and not dwell on the class in front of me – to keep a straight face, give the report and concentrate on getting it right. That’s normally how I perform. That’s how I am.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‚How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?‘ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.

I didn’t know how to deal with success. If there was a Rock Star 101, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me.

Well, I think that there’s a very thin dividing line between success and failure. And I think if you start a business without financial backing, you’re likely to go the wrong side of that dividing line.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

I started in action, and then I went to comedy school.

We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges.

Everybody has a job to do. There are people in Iraq on both sides of this war who do what they do for religious reasons, and they feel with God on their side. Some people are good at annihilating people. Maybe that’s their gift.

The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job.

God puts people in our lives on purpose so we can help them succeed and help them become all He created them to be. Most people will not reach their full potential without somebody else believing in them.

If you are surrounded by your competition and you are outworking these people, outmaneuvering these people, it’s hard not to let your confidence take over. It just builds and builds and builds.

Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Education is indoctrination if you’re white – subjugation if you’re black.

You can’t knock on opportunity’s door and not be ready.

I’ve enjoyed all the parts of my career.

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

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.

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

If my mother knew I did this for a living, she’d kill me. She thinks I’m selling dope.

Every citizen has the real right to receive general education and professional training at no cost, something that the United States has not been able to ensure for all its inhabitants.

As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory.

I’m a workin‘ girl.