Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess.

If a man can… make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it.

I think the reason my stories have been so successful is that I have a strong sense of metaphor.

Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

Lord keep us all from sin. Teach us how to walk circumspectly; enable us to guard our minds against error of doctrine, our hearts against wrong feelings, and our lives against evil actions.

I was sure I’d set the world on fire, and it was hard for a young feller like me to realize the truth – that I hadn’t set the world on fire, and I was totally unprepared to handle the consequences if ‚The Big Trail‘ had been a success and launched me as a star.

We should all start to live before we get too old.

I don’t believe you could be a 39-year-old quarterback in the NFL and eat cheeseburgers every day. I want to be able to do what I love to do for a long time.

Just as discipline and freedom are opposing forces that must be balanced, leadership requires finding the equilibrium in the dichotomy of many seemingly contradictory qualities between one extreme and another.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

My superhero has always been Tendulkar, and it will be Tendulkar for life. He is someone who has inspired me immensely. Just watching him play for India, I used to dream of winning games for India, because he used to do it single handedly.

Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.

You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

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.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

Information is not knowledge.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

The worst men often give the best advice.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

Giving responsibility is the key to success with boys, especially with the rowdiest and most difficult boys.

I’m not a nerd, obviously. Do I look like one? I’m not someone who sits at home and doesn’t like to go out, doesn’t like to watch movies. I like to live my life.

I had a lot of success from the start. I never really was tested for long periods of time. I got my first professional job while I was a senior in college. I signed with the William Morris Agency before I graduated.

An empty stomach is not a good political adviser.

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.

Forty to 60 I would say is your prime. That’s when you know the most, you’ve seen the most, you understand the most, and you still have some physical energy.

Riches have never fascinated me, unless combined with the greatest charm or distinction.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.

We learned about honesty and integrity – that the truth matters… that you don’t take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules… and success doesn’t count unless you earn it fair and square.

With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

Until you have learned to be tolerant with those who do not always agree with you, you will be neither successful nor happy.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with a settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

If you get to my age in life and nobody thinks well of you, I don’t care how big your bank account is, your life is a disaster.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

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.

All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind.

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

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

I explain the law of compensation like this: ‚Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

One man cannot practice many arts with success.

If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.

Not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, does the enlightened man dislike to wade into its waters.

Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.

No foreign policy – no matter how ingenious – has any chance of success if it is born in the minds of a few and carried in the hearts of none.

The best advice comes from people who don’t give advice.