Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

It is natural to want to have a future.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

Read the Bible. Work hard and honestly. And don’t complain.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

Without discipline, there’s no life at all.

These times are so hard, and they’re getting even harder.

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.

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

If you don’t stand your ground, then all that happens is people push you backwards.

The greatest difficulty always comes right before the birth of a dream.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

We must not sit still and look for miracles; up and doing, and the Lord will be with thee. Prayer and pains, through faith in Christ Jesus, will do anything.

If God treats you well by teaching you a disastrous lesson, you never forget it.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

This desk of mine is one at which a man may die, but from which he cannot resign.

Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

You not supposed to feel down over whatever happen to you. I mean, you’re supposed to use whatever happen to you as some type of upper, not a downer.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

I’m never gonna step away from stand-up. I can’t. That’s what got me where I am, and that’s also my muse. That’s how I stay level-headed. That’s what keeps me going.

A lot of people tell me a lot of things about my conduct, my game, my future… but I try to stay away from their words of wisdom. I don’t let it distract me. On the field, you will be facing the ball alone. If you fail, you will the only one to blame. So, you should be the one deciding for yourself.

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 not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

My interest in creating anything is that it be useful.

You’ve got to have faith in what you’re doing and not take no for an answer.

Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.

Oh, give us the man who sings at his work.

Emotion creates reality, reality demands action.

Desire is the very essence of man.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

Irrespective of whether you have talent or not, one has to work hard. Just being talented doesn’t mean anything; you can end up wasting it before you realize.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

You learn to know a pilot in a storm.

Actions are the seed of fate deeds grow into destiny.

It requires more courage to suffer than to die.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

Happiness is a ball after which we run wherever it rolls, and we push it with our feet when it stops.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

Of course, there are those critics – New York critics as a rule – who say, ‚Well, Maya Angelou has a new book out and of course it’s good but then she’s a natural writer.‘ Those are the ones I want to grab by the throat and wrestle to the floor because it takes me forever to get it to sing. I work at the language.

Example is leadership.

That feeling is so intoxicating, walking off the court holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. So I just want to do that again.

Where sense is wanting, everything is wanting.

And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

Before all else, be armed.

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

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

I’m not very ambitious at all.

Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.

If I inspire you, pay for it, period.

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.

Over the years I’ve seen people lose a spouse and then withdraw and lose interest in life, and I believe we need to resist that.

You have to feel confident. If you don’t, then you’re going to be hesitant and defensive, and there’ll be a lot of things working against you.