It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.

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.

Time is bunk.

One cannot become a saint when one works sixteen hours a day.

After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.

Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

Fun is one of the most important – and underrated – ingredients in any successful venture. If you’re not having fun, then it’s probably time to call it quits and try something else.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.

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.

I plan on taking athletics as far as I can.

I can’t play bridge. I don’t play tennis. All those things that people learn, and I admire, there hasn’t seemed time for. But what there is time for is looking out the window.

This desk of mine is one at which a man may die, but from which he cannot resign.

For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

We are like boxers, one never knows how much longer one has.

I have so much that I want to do. I hate wasting time.

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.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

Now we’re in the midst of not just advocating for change, not just calling for change – we’re doing the grinding, sometimes frustrating work of delivering change – inch by inch, day by day.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

If you calculate 15 minutes a day to shave, that is 5,000 minutes a year spent shaving.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.

Give me something to assemble, I won’t look at the directions, I’ll try to figure it out by myself. It’s why I love Ikea furniture.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

Why is it that although it takes us years to get into our messes, we expect God to get us out of them in a few days?

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Devote each day to the object then in time and every evening will find something done.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

My father, who was jailed for stealing on more than one occasion, just abandoned his fatherly responsibilities and disappeared. I grew up working from the time I was nine years of age. Money was a big issue everywhere I lived.

As soon as I accomplish one goal, I replace it with another one. I try not to get too far ahead of myself. I just say to myself, ‚All right, well, I’d like to headline a tour,‘ and then when I get there, we’ll see what my next goal is.

Time is more valuable than money, because time is irreplaceable.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.

No weapon has ever settled a moral problem. It can impose a solution but it cannot guarantee it to be a just one.

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

It’s just human nature to try and figure things out. So, when we’re in the midst of a situation, we usually try to reason our way through it.

When I do something, I do it full steam ahead.

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we’re scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don’t have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‚to do‘ list.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

Will power is to the mind like a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders a lame man who can see.

I start each book when it’s ready and never before.

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.

It is always your next move.

I believe that a trusting attitude and a patient attitude go hand in hand. You see, when you let go and learn to trust God, it releases joy in your life. And when you trust God, you’re able to be more patient. Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting.

You may delay, but time will not.

The most successful men in the end are those whose success is the result of steady accretion.

In two decades I’ve lost a total of 789 pounds. I should be hanging from a charm bracelet.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.