Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

I remember talking with Arcade Fire after their first record, when they were getting all kinds of offers from major labels, and I don’t think I gave them any advice. They survived that whole onslaught pretty well anyway without me.

Your ability to use the principle of autosuggestion will depend, very largely, upon your capacity to concentrate upon a given desire until that desire becomes a burning obsession.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Education forms the common mind. Just as the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Everybody that’s successful lays a blueprint out.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

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

No crime is so great as daring to excel.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

I think so many people live their whole life in fear and doubt and shame.

I want to go down in the history books with what I’ve achieved.

Trouble has no necessary connection with discouragement. Discouragement has a germ of its own, as different from trouble as arthritis is different from a stiff joint.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

Life is to be lived. If you have to support yourself, you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting. And you don’t do that by sitting around.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger.

Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.

You know, T can stand for anything. T stand for working hard. T stand for loving thy neighbor. T stand for feeding the hungry. T stand for just working, working, working, being happy on the set, you know, lifting everybody’s spirits. T stands for just a nice guy.

Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that come with fame – it’s what people in the limelight have to do.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

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.

But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

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.

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.

I think that once you’ve had a few No. 1s in your career that you’ve kind of proven yourself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything anymore.

When I started my last business, I didn’t receive a paycheck for 13 months. The average person can’t handle that pressure.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

Little things affect little minds.

Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.

There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Martyrdom is the only way a man can become famous without ability.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

I know I’m a good professional, I know that no one’s harder on me than myself and that’s never going to change, under any circumstances.

I never expect to lose. Even when I’m the underdog, I still prepare a victory speech.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.

Once I realized that right thinking is vital to victorious living, I got more serious about thinking about what I was thinking about, and choosing my thoughts carefully.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance – the idea that anything is possible.