It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

God has his plans and his reasons. Sometimes we are supposed to go through things so that we learn lessons.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

I never took a day off in my twenties. Not one. And I’m still fanatical, but now I’m a little less fanatical.

Catering to bad feelings feeds and empowers them.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.

Few people realize that luck is created.

Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.

I’m like a recovering perfectionist. For me it’s one day at a time.

I teach children to be winners.

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

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Life well spent is long.

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

At one point I learned transcendental meditation. This was 30-something years ago. It took me back to the way that I naturally was as a child growing up way in the country, rarely seeing people. I was in that state of oneness with creation and it was as if I didn’t exist except as a part of everything.

It was clear to me that if I could get through Princeton at the top of my class, I could do anything in the world.

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

I use a stream-of-consciousness approach; if you don’t censor yourself, you end up with what you’re most concerned about, but you haven’t filtered it through your conscious mind. Then you craft it.

The only cure for contempt is counter-contempt.

The attempt and not the deed confounds us.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

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

Not what I have, but what I do is my kingdom.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

I do not like the man who squanders life for fame; give me the man who living makes a name.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words.

I hate to be smart.

Well, you know, I’m the forever optimist.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

Before you start a goal – let’s take care of our insecurities because they are going to surface when you put yourself in the crucible and you’re suffering.

Trials teach us what we are; they dig up the soil, and let us see what we are made of.

My powers are ordinary. Only my application brings me success.

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

You cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.

I have always thought I was the best ever player.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

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.

The only real progress lies in learning to be wrong all alone.

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.

No person is important enough to make me angry.

Magic has five championships. I have five championships. I’m pretty sure we both know what we’re doing.

The trained mind is a rich mind.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

With drive and a bit of talent, you can move mountains. I know. I’ve done it.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

One of the greatest lessons of my own life was learning to turn the inner rampage of hatred and anger toward my own father for his reprehensible behavior and abandonment of his family into an inner reaction more closely aligned with God and God-realized love.

I’ve always been surrounded by many great people and professors, but my family, especially my mom who was a teacher, was the person who encouraged me to study and pushed me to continue. When we’re young, we don’t understand why our parents bug us so much with school and doing homework, but it’s a blessing to have that support at home.

I mean… in life… what relationship is easy?

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

Get mad, then get over it.

When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.