It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

All I have to say is basically if performing, singing, acting, and dancing is what you want to do, then you just have to do it – no matter where it is.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

I grew up where, when a door closed, a window didn’t open. The only thing I had was cracks. I’d do everything to get through those cracks – scratch, claw, bite, push, bleed. Now the opportunity is here. The door is wide open, and it’s as big as a garage.

When we tackle obstacles, we find hidden reserves of courage and resilience we did not know we had. And it is only when we are faced with failure do we realise that these resources were always there within us. We only need to find them and move on with our lives.

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

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited ‚first chapters‘. I have indeed written many.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

In my career as a director, there’s always been some point where you get halfway through it, or three-quarters, and you go: ‚What is this thing all about, and why am I telling the story? Does anybody really care about seeing this?‘ At that time you have to say: ‚OK, forget that and just go ahead.‘

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

We come bulletproof in Ireland. We’re reared tough, and we fight.

I pass my life in preventing the storm from blowing down the tent, and I drive in the pegs as fast as they are pulled up.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

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

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.

When I was young, I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. So I did ten times more work.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

I’m proof against that word failure. I’ve seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

But in truth, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them.

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

I don’t mind people hating me, because it pushes me.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

The same law takes place in a system, consisting of many bodies, as in one single body, with regard to their persevering in their state of motion or of rest. For the progressive motion, whether of one single body or of a whole system of bodies, is always to be estimated from the motion of the center of gravity.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

At the end of the day, I understand that life has road blocks, and life is like school – you’ll be tested; we gotta pass it.

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

It is always your next move.

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

I try to make it look easy, but the behind-the-scenes stuff is the challenge.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

After the first day of practice, there’s not one guy who’s playing at 100 percent or who feels great. Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it just hurts.

Though men determine, the gods doo dispose: and oft times many things fall out betweene the cup and the lip.

Once you start a working on something, don’t be afraid of failure and don’t abandon it. People who work sincerely are the happiest.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

Always take hold of things by the smooth handle.

I’m always asked, ‚What’s the secret to success?‘ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

If you will do what God tells you to do, there’s no person on Earth and no devil in Hell that can keep you from having what God wants you to have.

Nothing ever comes to one, that is worth having, except as a result of hard work.

Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.

Get up tomorrow early in the morning, and earlier than you did today, and do the best that you can. Always stay near me, for tomorrow I will have much to do and more than I ever had, and tomorrow blood will leave my body above the breast.

The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.

Nothing stops the man who desires to achieve. Every obstacle is simply a course to develop his achievement muscle. It’s a strengthening of his powers of accomplishment.

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

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.