Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.

What interests me in life is curiosity, challenges, the good fight with its victories and defeats.

The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

I’m not the most attractive fella. I’m not a Billy Dee Williams. Personality is everything.

Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He is by constitution expensive, and needs to be rich.

Good intentions never change anything. They only become a deeper and deeper rut.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith.

I can move any crowd.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.

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

I’m very much into making lists and breaking things apart into categories.

When there’s so much left to do, why spend your time focusing on things you’ve already done, counting trophies or telling stories about the good old days?

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

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

This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

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

From wonder into wonder existence opens.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

My message to all the activists is to just keep going, and I know it really may seem impossible and hopeless sometimes – it always does – so you just have to keep going because if you try hard enough and long enough you will make a difference.

When people are around us, they should leave better off than they were previously. Rather than feeling discouraged or defeated, people should feel challenged and inspired after spending any time with you and me.

There is no comparison between that which is lost by not succeeding and that which is lost by not trying.

Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

I don’t focus on the critics. Everyone who is making any difference in any field has critics. As long as I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing, then I don’t worry about it.

Ambition has one heel nailed in well, though she stretch her fingers to touch the heavens.

Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.

America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.

Nobody should come to the movies unless he believes in heroes.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

Why do you want to get a good workout early in the morning? Well, because it sends more oxygen to your brain; it releases endorphins. It puts you in a state of mind where you can crush things, which is where you want to be.

A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.

Our most tragic error may have been our inability to establish a rapport and a confidence with the press and television with the communication media. I don’t think the press has understood me.

All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

Confidentially, the type of male I find most enjoyable for a friend is one who has enough fire and assurance to speak up for his convictions.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

Self-belief and hard work will always earn you success.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

If four things are followed – having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance – then anything can be achieved.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

From the moment I started writing raps, I was always aware of the pressure. I always wanted to live up to how huge Snoop got, how huge Dre got, how huge Pac got. I was always aware.

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

On a given day, a given circumstance, you think you have a limit.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

Players now have a groin injury for months and months, and I often think they don’t really give a toss whether they’re playing or not because they’re getting paid anyway.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

Short cuts make long delays.

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we may encounter many defeats – maybe it’s imperative that we encounter the defeats – but we are much stronger than we appear to be and maybe much better than we allow ourselves to be. Human beings are more alike than unalike.