Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times before. But it’s true – hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don’t love something, then don’t do it.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.

I know a lot of people say they always believed they could get into F1, but I didn’t quite believe that, certainly not when I was 7 and maybe not until I was 14. It was always so far away.

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

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

I can make something magical and wonderful out of nothing.

I only type every third night. I have no plan. My mind is a blank. I sit down. The typewriter gives me things I don’t even know I’m working on. It’s a free lunch. A free dinner. I don’t know how long it is going to continue, but so far there is nothing easier than writing.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere.

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.

I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shakespeare, all those. The stilted formalism, like chewing cardboard.

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.

We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.

Just try new things. Don’t be afraid. Step out of your comfort zones and soar, all right?

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

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Whatever you have, you must either use or lose.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

I want to appeal to everyone. Because I’m not saying I’m the best, but we the best.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Today, I’d like to talk to Bob Marley. I’d just like to ask him what was his method. Bob is one of the greatest songwriters ever. I don’t know if people understand how powerful his songs are and the simplicity and genius behind them, from ‚Redemption Song‘ to ‚Is This Love?‘ and ‚I Shot the Sheriff.‘

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

Of course, I do everything for money.

If you keep proving stuff that others have done, getting confidence, increasing the complexities of your solutions – for the fun of it – then one day you’ll turn around and discover that nobody actually did that one!

My success isn’t a result of arrogance – it’s a result of belief.

The true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

One has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people’s throats – and one always secretes too much jelly.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

Let us not listen to those who think we ought to be angry with our enemies, and who believe this to be great and manly. Nothing is so praiseworthy, nothing so clearly shows a great and noble soul, as clemency and readiness to forgive.

Every man who has at last succeeded, after long effort, in calling up the divinity which lies hidden in a woman’s heart, is startled to find that he must obey the God he summoned.

Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sign that he expects to be paid for it.

We love life, not because we are used to living but because we are used to loving.

Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

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.

Our whole life is set up in the path of least resistance. We don’t want to suffer. We don’t want to feel discomfort. So the whole time, we’re living our lives in a very comfortable area. There’s no growth in that.

Anyone can be a Superman, but nobody can be Jackie Chan.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

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.

So live with men as if God saw you and speak to God, as if men heard you.

It’s not about charisma and personality, it’s about results and products and those very bedrock things that are why people at Apple and outside of Apple are getting more excited about the company and what Apple stands for and what its potential is to contribute to the industry.

There’s so much about Dolly Parton that every female artist should look to, whether it’s reading her quotes or reading her interviews or going to one of her live shows. She’s been such an amazing example to every female songwriter out there.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

The only shame is to have none.

I dream of painting and then I paint my dream.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

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.

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.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

If you get up in the morning and think the future is going to be better, it is a bright day. Otherwise, it’s not.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.