It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker.

There are different ways to do innovation. You can plant a lot of seeds, not be committed to any particular one of them, but just see what grows. And this really isn’t how we’ve approached this. We go mission-first, then focus on the pieces we need and go deep on them and be committed to them.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one’s self to destiny.

It is very difficult to get people to focus on the most important things when you’re in boom times.

From a young age, I learned to focus on the things I was good at and delegate to others what I was not good at. That’s how Virgin is run. Fantastic people throughout the Virgin Group run our businesses, allowing me to think creatively and strategically.

Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

Intimates are predestined.

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.

Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

The slave is doomed to worship time and fate and death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Sometimes, I think if you get away from what you’re called to do, it’s more of a distraction.

I’m bloody awful at multi-tasking.

Concentration is one of the happiest things in my life.

The feeling about a soldier is, when all is said and done, he wasn’t really going to do very much with his life anyway. The example usually is: he wasn’t going to compose Beethoven’s Fifth.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

I believe nothing happens by mistake. You know, the universe has a divine plan. That sounds dramatic.

You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or, rather, you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.

If I make a mistake and finish 10th when we should have finished ninth, then I will be unhappy.

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

Know that as a Christian, your destiny is to be Christlike in all of your ways.

Success in life is founded upon attention to the small things rather than to the large things; to the every day things nearest to us rather than to the things that are remote and uncommon.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Bottom line: God will not allow any person to keep you from your destiny. They may be bigger, stronger, or more powerful, but God knows how to shift things around and get you to where you’re supposed to be.

You cannot be creative with people around you.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

Coincidences are spiritual puns.

In testing, you make a mistake, you just say ‚OK we’ll have another go‘ instead of it being the only chance you get.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

Pursue one great decisive aim with force and determination.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.

When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing – if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.

Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

Whatever I will become will be what God has chosen for me.

George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as ‚evil.‘ Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism.

If I could, I would not do anything else. I’d just be in the studio for my whole life. I would never go to parties, events, and red carpets. I would rather just be in the studio for the whole time. I don’t even care. Nobody has to know what I look like. I just want to make music.

I tend not to look back and dwell on a project once it is finished.

The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way.

The Internet is a big distraction.

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.

When I write, I tend to twist my hair. Something for my small mind to do, I guess.

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.

I laugh and joke, but I don’t get distracted very easily.

I know Elon, we’re very like minded in many ways. We’re not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it’s one thing. He’s singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don’t find that Plan B idea motivating. I don’t want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

The album requires a certain focus of mine that I can’t really explain – let’s just say it’s all I can really do while I’m doing it.

It would be an egregious mistake to ever refer to me in the same breath as most of the people I write about.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.