It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

If you raise your children to feel that they can accomplish any goal or task they decide upon, you will have succeeded as a parent and you will have given your children the greatest of all blessings.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

Exploration by real people inspires us.

This guy Clubber Lang, I’ve been him all my life. He’s mean and hungry just like me.

Don’t ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It’s too short, and you’re too special.

If you ask people what they’ve always wanted to do, most people haven’t done it. That breaks my heart.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.

I usually don’t like to ‚spoon feed‘ my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.

As I followed my dream – stayed in-Spirit, that is, inspired – I made more money in the first year after I gave up my employment than I had made in the previous 35 years of my life.

My life is my message.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

It’s like a jar of salad dressing sitting on a shelf… most of the seasoning settles to the bottom of the bottle. But when you shake that bottle up, all the ingredients mix together and then the dressing can add flavor to a salad. In the same way, we can stir ourselves up and regain the reverence, respect and awe we once had for the Lord.

I can’t do nothing just a little.

Example is leadership.

Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.

I decided to pursue music, so I dropped out of school and I told my parents I didn’t want any money from them. I got three jobs and I just hit the ground running.

I’m not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I’m living on.

Dignify and glorify common labor. It is at the bottom of life that we must begin, not at the top.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Stories surge up out of nowhere, and if they feel compelling, you follow them. You let them unfold inside you and see where they are going to lead.

That feeling is so intoxicating, walking off the court holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. So I just want to do that again.

Music comes to me more readily than words.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

You have enough people against you… be for yourself.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

A man who has no office to go, to I don’t care who he is, is a trial of which you can have no conception.

The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.

If you are born an artist, you have no choice but to fight to stay an artist.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

My mother is a strong, wonderful woman. I could never be anything she didn’t want me to be.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success.

Virtuous people often revenge themselves for the constraints to which they submit by the boredom which they inspire.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

All great truths begin as blasphemies.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

My kind of composing is more like the work of a gardener. The gardener takes his seeds and scatters them, knowing what he is planting but not quite what will grow where and when – and he won’t necessarily be able to reproduce it again afterwards either.

There wasn’t much as a kid that inspired me in what I did as an adult, but I was always very interested in what motivates people, and in telling stories and building things.

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

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

I gather from motivation around me – from a lot of personalities who have done well in their respective fields.

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

We build too many walls and not enough bridges.

And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.

I’m not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

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.

Before you start some work, always ask yourself three questions – Why am I doing it, What the results might be and Will I be successful. Only when you think deeply and find satisfactory answers to these questions, go ahead.

A lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into this career of mine.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose actions show that he knows where he is going.

If you’ve got a talent, protect it.