One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

Character, in great and little things, means carrying through what you feel able to do.

I couldn’t ever go back home without being something. I probably would never have gone back home. That was definitely a big motivation. To get back home, and not empty-handed.

God’s desire is that we excel.

I just kind of wake up with a new idea and new dreams every day, and I follow that dream, as they say.

You know, not to sound corny or nuthin‘, but I felt like a fighter comin‘ up, man. I felt like, you know, I’m being attacked for this reason or that reason, and I gotta fight my way through this.

If you can ask a young man to give his life for his country, you can lead people.

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.

Self-centered leaders manipulate when they move people for personal benefit. Mature leaders motivate by moving people for mutual benefit.

My message, especially to young people is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards. This is my message to the young people.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

Wherever the invitation of men or your own occasions lead you, speak the very truth, as your life and conscience teach it, and cheer the waiting, fainting hearts of men with new hope and new revelation.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

We must act out passion before we can feel it.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

Losing is tough.

Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

I exhort you also to take part in the great combat, which is the combat of life, and greater than every other earthly conflict.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

To keep the business going, you gotta keep it boomin‘.

Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‚You can do better than this.‘

There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love; there’s only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.

If you’re teaching today what you were teaching five years ago, either the field is dead or you are.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

Don’t compare yourself with other people; compare yourself with who you were yesterday.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

I believe you never get tired by doing work. You get tired when you don’t work. When you clean your house, you don’t get tired; it gives you satisfaction.

The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.

Giving up cannot be an option.

I pity the fool who just gives up.

Dream and you shall become.

I’m not afraid to look like a big, hairy, smelly, foreign devil in Tokyo, though I do my best not to, I really do.

I can never be safe; I always try and go against the grain. As soon as I accomplish one thing, I just set a higher goal. That’s how I’ve gotten to where I am.

People think because I’ve got some success, I’ve made it, but in my eyes it’s like, ‚How long has Jay Z been in the business? How many albums has he got?‘ Not that I’m trying to be Jay Z, but I am trying to be around for a long time.

It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

I’ve never thought about any kind of prejudice about women in country music because I never felt like it affected me. I was fortunate enough to come about in a time when I didn’t feel that kind of energy at all, and it was always my theory that if you want to play in the same ballgame as the boys, you’ve got to work as hard as them.

Personal columnists are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat – no matter who killed the meat for him.

The battle is all over except the ‚shouting‘ when one knows what is wanted and has made up his mind to get it, whatever the price may be.

I’m interested in what motivates individuals to participate in atrocious acts to support their ideological identification.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

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.

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

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

We are motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is the more he is inspired by glory. The very philosophers themselves, even in those books which they write in contempt of glory, inscribe their names.

I use my celebrity status to inspire someone, to give them hope.

I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

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.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.

Work aside, we come to New York for the possibility of interaction and inspiration.

Believe me, I’m much easier to be around when we win than when we lose.

When I’m inspired, I get excited because I can’t wait to see what I’ll come up with next.

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.