Mental toughness is a lifestyle. It’s something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up, I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid, and everybody goes, ‚How did you get to where you’re at today? How did you get to where you’re running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours? Being so disciplined?‘

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.

To excel at the highest level – or any level, really – you need to believe in yourself, and hands down, one of the biggest contributors to my self-confidence has been private coaching.

If you’re serious, you really understand that it’s important that you laugh as much as possible and admit that you’re the funniest person you ever met. You have to laugh. Admit that you’re funny. Otherwise, you die in solemnity.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

Juvenile crime is not naturally born in the boy, but is largely due either to the spirit of adventure that is in him, to his own stupidity, or to his lack of discipline, according to the nature of the individual.

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.

In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.

Many people, especially young people, would like to be more independent and on their own. But it is very difficult and they suffer from feelings of isolation. I think that is one reason why young readers support my work.

I made bad decisions. I’m not denying that I made bad decisions.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

I have no time to think about other writers. I am too busy with my own problems.

I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it’s funny. And it’s not funny. It’s not.

When I get on a roll with something, it’s really hard for me to put it down unfinished.

Don’t get older just to get wiser. If you get older, you will be wiser, I believe that – if you dare. But get older because it’s fun!

It was such a leap in my career when ‚Truman Show‘ came along. It’s always been a long process for me insofar as recognition goes, but that’s OK because you appreciate it when it comes.

I always believed that when you follow your heart or your gut, when you really follow the things that feel great to you, you can never lose, because settling is the worst feeling in the world.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

I’m only as good as my last word, my last hook, my last bridge.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

If at first you don’t succeed, then skydiving definitely isn’t for you.

Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.

Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

Humility is to make a right estimate of one’s self.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

You do projects with the hope they will be big and hope they will go beyond what you imagine.

I don’t think the ebbs and flows – get in great shape and then get out of shape and then see if you can get back into shape – is a good thing. So I prefer to keep my arm always ready to go.

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

A man is but the product of his thoughts, what he thinks he becomes.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.

The more people I reach, the more people there are that have opinions about me. Not everyone loves me, but I have to be okay no matter what they think about me.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

It kills me to lose. If I’m a troublemaker, and I don’t think that my temper makes me one, then it’s because I can’t stand losing. That’s the way I am about winning, all I ever wanted to do was finish first.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

I’m almost like three people. There’s me the, Dolly, the person. There’s me, the star. And then there’s me, the manager.

Your decision to be, have and do something out of ordinary entails facing difficulties that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else.

When I checked into SEAL Team One many years ago, one of the things that I noticed was there was this old guy, who was younger than I am today, who I decided that I was going to be like. I wanted to emulate what he was doing, and one of those things was he got to work before anybody else.

Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become.

Don’t think in the morning. That’s a big mistake that people make. They wake up in the morning and they start thinking. Don’t think. Just execute the plan. The plan is the alarm clock goes off, you get up, you go work out. Get some.

Control and surrender have to be kept in balance. That’s what surfers do – take control of the situation, then be carried, then take control. In the last few thousand years, we’ve become incredibly adept technically. We’ve treasured the controlling part of ourselves and neglected the surrendering part.

I hoped to be able to write a novel which would enable me to live on it while I wrote the next.

Naturally, everybody has certain things they wish they hadn’t done in life. They wish they hadn’t kicked their dog when they were ten or something.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.

There’s nothing – I’ve bought everything I want. I don’t like yachts or anything; you know, I’m not a yacht person, and I’ve got pretty much the nicest plane I’d want to have.

When I was into my 30s, I became increasingly depressed by rejection letters. I had had the feeling that by the time I was 30, I would be established. But I was not at all. By the time of ‚Lives of Girls and Women,‘ I was into my 40s and I had become more thin-skinned.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.