My honour was not yielded, but conquered merely.

Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‚a quiet conscience makes one strong!‘

That is America. That is America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future; we shape it. We embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.

Being self-made means never making an excuse as to why you can’t take steps toward whatever your goal is.

I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn’t know how to get along without it.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

If it doesn’t work out there will never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain.

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.

The problems of victory are more agreeable than those of defeat, but they are no less difficult.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‚This is what I asked for.‘

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

I read everything, but generally more fact than fiction – especially autobiographies and biographies. I’ve read ‚Long Walk to Freedom‘ by Nelson Mandela at least twice on holiday. Every time, I’m totally awed by his vision, strength and forgiveness. I feel honoured to have got to know him and his wonderful wife Graca over the years.

I’m not going to limit myself just because people won’t accept the fact that I can do something else.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

A feeble body weakens the mind.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

Returning to your family and where you came from, and your history… this is what makes you strong. It’s not looking out that’s going to do that – it’s looking in.

The beautiful seems right by force of beauty, and the feeble wrong because of weakness.

Let the people on both sides keep their self-possession, and just as other clouds have cleared away in due time, so will this, and this great nation shall continue to prosper as before.

I know Elon, we’re very like minded in many ways. We’re not conceptual twins. One thing I want us to do is go to Mars, but for me it’s one thing. He’s singularly focused on that. I think motivation wise, for me I don’t find that Plan B idea motivating. I don’t want a plan B for Earth, I want Plan B to make sure Plan A works.

Before all else, be armed.

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

It is always your next move.

The greatest story of all is Colonel Sanders. He didn’t start until he was sixty-six on a freeway bypass for his chicken shop. Anything is possible!

I’m the most stubborn person I know.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

After the first day of practice, there’s not one guy who’s playing at 100 percent or who feels great. Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it just hurts.

We clearly see in God’s Word that anything He tells us to do, He will give us the ability to do it. But do we really believe it? Do we want to believe it? It’s easier to come up with excuses for why we can’t do things that are hard or that we really don’t want to do.

Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.

I have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.

Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.

My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts.

I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Great hearts steadily send forth the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.

Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.

The lessons from the peace process are clear; whatever life throws at us, our individual responses will be all the stronger for working together and sharing the load.

My dream is to continue filming until my body tells me to stop.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Lot of players lose hope because of lack of motivation.

Nothing’s ever easy as long as you go on living.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

You know, I’m trying to chase rings, and that’s all I’m about. So that’s where the conversation stops for me.

I loved photography and everybody said it was a crazy thing to do because in those days nobody made it into the film business. I mean, unless you were related to somebody there was no way in.

Youngsters of the age of two and three are endowed with extraordinary strength. They can lift a dog twice their own weight and dump him into the bathtub.

My friends, no matter how rough the road may be, we can and we will, never, never surrender to what is right.

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.

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 was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

I had a rough childhood coming up, and I just took all that negative energy and made it very positive for myself to drive me. I’m a very driven person. I have passion that almost scares people, just to be successful and make it no matter what.

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.