It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

A good day is one where I can not just read a book, but write a review of it. Maybe today I’ll be able to do that. I get for some reason somewhat stronger when the sun starts to go down. Dusk is a good time for me. I’m crepuscular.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of his way, but must accept his lot calmly, even if they roll a few stones upon it.

That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.

Any of us can be happy and have a good attitude when everything is going our way. But I believe it’s the real test of your character and of your faith to say, ‚Things are not going our way, but I’m still being good to people; I’m still attending church; I still have a good attitude.‘

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

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

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

I can find in my undergraduate classes, bright students who do not know that the stars rise and set at night, or even that the Sun is a star.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

When I stop working the rest of the day is posthumous. I’m only really alive when I’m writing.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

I like writing. I get cranky when I can’t. Yes, I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

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 better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.

The only failure one should fear, is not hugging to the purpose they see as best.

I dropped out of NYU, moved out of my parent’s house, got my own place, and survived on my own. I made music and worked my way from the bottom up.

I can’t remember what made my dad take us karting for the first time, I can’t remember really. I was into motorsport by then and I knew everything, and every driver, it was around 2009, 2008. That’s when I first properly knew about Formula One. Those were the days.

The battle is all over except the ‚shouting‘ when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

I spent my childhood in the country and started reading even before going to school. There was nothing else in my life but sketching and reading.

I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

A fortunate author can write maybe twelve novels in his lifetime.

I got my first computer in the 6th grade or so. As soon as I got it, I was interested in finding out how it worked and how the programs worked and then figuring out how to write programs at just deeper and deeper levels within the system.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Harvard makes mistakes too, you know. Kissinger taught there.

I have great respect for the semicolon; it is a mighty handy little fellow.

Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.

God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Although the life of a person is in a land full of thorns and weeds, there is always a space in which the good seed can grow. You have to trust God.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.

To all the positions, I just bring the determination to win. Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates. When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.

It’s with bad sentiments that one makes good novels.

He who laughs best today, will also laughs last.

I think the Iranians are clearly determined to have a nuclear program. And we have to assume that with a nuclear program they have the capability and the will to create a nuclear weapon.

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lines. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise.

The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

I know some people might think it odd – unworthy even – for me to have written a cookbook, but I make no apologies. The U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins thought I had demeaned myself by writing poetry for Hallmark Cards, but I am the people’s poet so I write for the people.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents‘ garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed.

What keeps me going is goals.

Certainly it is valuable to a trained writer to crash in an aircraft which burns. He learns several important things very quickly. Whether they will be of use to him is conditioned by survival. Survival, with honor, that outmoded and all-important word, is as difficult as ever and as all-important to a writer.

Libraries raised me.

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

I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.