Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, seek to be worthy of being known.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.

Most of us aren’t defeated in one decisive battle. We are defeated one tiny, seemingly insignificant surrender at a time that chips away at who we should really be.

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.

I’d be more frightened by not using whatever abilities I’d been given. I’d be more frightened by procrastination and laziness.

I will never retire unless I have to.

I’m not as goal obsessed as I am process obsessed.

Seek always to do some good, somewhere. Every man has to seek in his own way to realize his true worth. You must give some time to your fellow man. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.

Freedom is what everyone wants – to be able to act and live with freedom. But the only way to get to a place of freedom is through discipline.

I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

I always make my dreams into goals.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

People’s blessings give you the power to work tirelessly. The only thing required is commitment.

I was brought up to try to see what was wrong and right it. Since I am a writer, writing is how I right it.

I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

I’d like to think you don’t stop being creative once you get happy.

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

The day you stop doing the small things is the day you think you’re above everybody else.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

Good planning is important. I’ve also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you’re in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you’re depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

Siren voices tell me, ‚You don’t have to keep going on.‘ And then you think, ‚I’m a writer. What do I do? Sit there watching my wife clean up?‘ I don’t know. I like being a writer.

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.

Maybe some people can wake up and play PlayStation all day, but that’s never been me.

When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, ‚Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?‘ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.

At the age of 6, a teacher full of ambitions, who taught in the small public school of Biran, convinced my family that I should travel to Santiago de Cuba to accompany my older sister who would enter a highly prestigious convent school. Including me was a skill of that very teacher from the little school in Biran.

Some people take defeat and losses a certain way. You see how some fighters take losses.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

The opportunities of America opened out to me the public schools. They carried me to the professional training of an American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread.

Hollywood has a way of making everything seem like an overnight success.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

Many people identify their sense of self with the problems they have, or think they have.

Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.

The mind of a 19-year-old is very different from the mind of a 26-year-old. You grow. You get into better relationships. You experience more, meet more people, better people. But when you’re in a dark hole at an earlier point in your life – you write about the mindset you’re in at that moment.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

We’ve been programmed, from the time that we were very, very little, about what we can’t do – about what is impossible.

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.

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

Our brains are either our greatest assets or our greatest liabilities.

I’ve always been surrounded by many great people and professors, but my family, especially my mom who was a teacher, was the person who encouraged me to study and pushed me to continue. When we’re young, we don’t understand why our parents bug us so much with school and doing homework, but it’s a blessing to have that support at home.

Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Too many people measure how successful they are by how much money they make or the people that they associate with. In my opinion, true success should be measured by how happy you are.

Invest three percent of your income in yourself (self-development) in order to guarantee your future.

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.

Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

Whenever you do something, people try to re-do it and do a better version, especially if they’re in another country.

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

Send forth the child and childish man together, and blush for the pride that libels our own old happy state, and gives its title to an ugly and distorted image.

Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.