My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

Men take only their needs into consideration – never their abilities.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

Kind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

If I was to go to sleep before midnight, I would feel weird about myself, like I wasted a day. My most productive hours are between midnight and five.

I am absolutely my own biggest critic.

Admiration for a quality or an art can be so strong that it deters us from striving to possess it.

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player.

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.‘

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.

Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

What I have in common with the character in ‚Truman‘ is this incredible need to please people. I feel like I want to take care of everyone and I also feel this terrible guilt if I am unable to. And I have felt this way ever since all this success started.

It is impossible to underrate human intelligence – beginning with one’s own.

Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.

Everybody has a purpose.

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

If you want to be successful, it’s just this simple. Know what you are doing. Love what you are doing. And believe in what you are doing.

Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.

I still wanna rap better than everybody else, and I wanna say important things.

Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

I don’t lose any sleep at night over the potential for failure. I cannot even spell the word.

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!

I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.

Ideas excite me, and as soon as I get excited, the adrenaline gets going and the next thing I know I’m borrowing energy from the ideas themselves.

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

Free people, remember this maxim: we may acquire liberty, but it is never recovered if it is once lost.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.

Growing up I didn’t watch movies.

Whatever is making you so angry, it’s time for you to give it to God and get over it.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

Number of people have said to me, after hearing your thinking, their mind becomes much more happier.

Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn’t that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Every man is his own hell.

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to be in combat.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

He who conquers others is strong; He who conquers himself is mighty.

Remind yourself that winning an argument or proving your point really gets you nowhere in the long run. Win through your actions, not your words.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

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

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

How hard, how bitter it is to become a man!

I’ve been lucky. Opportunities don’t often come along. So, when they do, you have to grab them.

Don’t ever forget two things I’m going to tell you. One, don’t believe everything that’s written about you. Two, don’t pick up too many checks.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.