Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘

I don’t get up, get dressed, go out, and think, ‚Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.‘

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

If you enjoy living, it is not difficult to keep the sense of wonder.

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, ‚Thus far and no farther.‘

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

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

Whether you think that you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

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.‘

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

The truth is, anyone can start projects. The world is full of just-started projects that looked great at the time but were never completed.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

I have short goals – to get better every day, to help my teammates every day – but my only ultimate goal is to win an NBA championship. It’s all that matters. I dream about it. I dream about it all the time, how it would look, how it would feel. It would be so amazing.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

Everybody wants to be famous, but nobody wants to do the work. I live by that. You grind hard so you can play hard. At the end of the day, you put all the work in, and eventually it’ll pay off. It could be in a year, it could be in 30 years. Eventually, your hard work will pay off.

Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I’m loving to do. And if that doesn’t happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I’ll have my high heels on.

I do believe in self-help.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

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

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.

Though ambition in itself is a vice, it often is also the parent of virtue.

I’m sure like everyone else I’m not always the happiest if I don’t do a good job in quali or the race or whatever, so I think beating myself up sometimes makes me work harder.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.

I thought I couldn’t make a difference because I was too small.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple.

My philosophy in life is, Decide what you want to do. You have to have something to hope for.

Everybody could be an entrepreneur, but very few will become very rich entrepreneurs.

It’s lack that gives us inspiration. It’s not fullness.

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

Passions are the gales of life.

To keep the business going, you gotta keep it boomin‘.

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 tell everybody, I get so much because I give so much. I give freely, I give all my time, give all my money, give all of my soul. I try to motivate people. I try to inspire them.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

That is my wish, hope, instruction for all of you: Take your education seriously, okay? Always do that. Because I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my education.

In order to fly, all one must do is simply miss the ground.

We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line. Don’t forget it.

Man will do many things to get himself loved, he will do all things to get himself envied.

A word after a word after a word is power.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.