I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

A great fortune is a great slavery.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

There must be a reason why some people can afford to live well. They must have worked for it. I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things that we could use.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

I’ve been blessed to be somebody that’s been climbing that success mountain top for years of hard work, you know, but now it’s all connecting. And now, the whole world is watching, you know what I’m saying, and it feels good ‚cause it’s good energy. This is all positive vibes, and good vibes and good energy, so it feels incredible.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.

The mark of all good art is not that the thing done is done exactly or finely, for machinery may do as much, but that it is worked out with the head and the workman’s heart.

Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun.

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

I always wanted a great love affair: something that feels big and full, really honest, and enough. No moment should feel slight, false, or a little off. For me, it had to be everything.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

Skill is the unified force of experience, intellect and passion in their operation.

Jump out the window if you are the object of passion. Flee it if you feel it. Passion goes, boredom remains.

Life can be boring unless you put some effort into it.

I was a good football player, and I had a chance to play with some great players.

Rule number one is: Beat your team-mate.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It’s sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

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.

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.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

People think that at the top there isn’t much room. They tend to think of it as an Everest. My message is that there is tons of room at the top.

The men who have succeeded are men who have chosen one line and stuck to it.

We can take a ‚It was hard to get there.‘ But we ain’t taking no loss. We’re going to win.

I love making movies, but there’s nothing like performing live.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

Aim for the highest.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Men are rather reasoning than reasonable animals, for the most part governed by the impulse of passion.

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

A career is born in public – talent in privacy.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

If you can build a business up big enough, it’s respectable.

The day when I am no more than a writer I shall cease to be a writer.

Believe you can and you’re halfway there.

In this great country, we celebrate success. We don’t want to penalize those who have done well.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

We will move forward, we will move upward, and yes, we will move onward.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.

Love in its essence is spiritual fire.

We believe that if men have the talent to invent new machines that put men out of work, they have the talent to put those men back to work.

Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement.

Intellectual passion drives out sensuality.

Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one.