So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

I have a love interest in every one of my films: a gun.

You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed – you’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.

It’s kind of like a challenge to myself to be able to hear somebody else’s hook and kind of interpret the words. Because my own hooks, I already know what I mean when I write them.

The worst part of success is, to me, adapting to it. It’s scary.

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.

Get someone else to blow your horn and the sound will carry twice as far.

The dreams and passions stored within hearts are powerful keys which can unlock a wealth of potential.

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

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

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.

I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, ‚What should I do?‘ And I say: ‚Act. Do something.‘ Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.

Perhaps if you are in support functions waiting on the warfighters to spell out the specifics of what you are to do, you can avoid the consequences of not reading. Those who must adapt to overcoming an independent enemy’s will are not allowed that luxury.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

Rule number one is: Beat your team-mate.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

There are a lot of inaccuracies out there when it comes to the SEAL training process. You will see guys carrying logs around on television. They think that the hardest part about being on a SEAL team is getting through that training. The fact of the matter is, if you have a good attitude, that training is fun. I had a blast.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

Energy begets energy.

Those who create are rare; those who cannot are numerous. Therefore, the latter are stronger.

Many shoulder heavy burdens of righteous responsibility which, on occasion, seem so difficult to bear. I have heard those challenges termed impossible.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

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

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.

When I was writing ‚Kitchen Confidential,‘ I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car.

My parents were just constantly affirming me in everything that I did. Late at night, I’d wake up and hear my mother talking over my bed, saying, ‚You’re going to do great on this test. You can do anything you want.‘

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

The greatest mistake you can make in life is continually fearing that you’ll make one.

Be above it! Make the world serve your purpose, but do not serve it.

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.

What keeps me motivated is love and passion.

You want me to own a team and deal with these rich, spoiled stubborn athletes, and try to get them to perform? No thank you.

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

This guy Clubber Lang, I’ve been him all my life. He’s mean and hungry just like me.

Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

Find a job you like and you add five days to every week.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

Part of the issue of achievement is to be able to set realistic goals, but that’s one of the hardest things to do because you don’t always know exactly where you’re going, and you shouldn’t.

Luck marches with those who give their very best.

Difficulties should act as a tonic. They should spur us to greater exertion.

I just do the best I can and write something interesting, to tell stories in an interesting way and move forward from there.

I think that at the start of a game, you’re always playing to win, and then maybe if you’re ahead late in the game, you start playing not to lose. The true competitors, though, are the ones who always play to win.

When you know what you want, and want it bad enough, you will find a way to get it.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

It’s so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

Let each become all that he was created capable of being.

We live in ugly times.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.