Teachers can change lives with just the right mix of chalk and challenges.

If four things are followed – having a great aim, acquiring knowledge, hard work, and perseverance – then anything can be achieved.

It is better to risk starving to death then surrender. If you give up on your dreams, what’s left?

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Never mistake motion for action.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

To have done anything just for money is to have been truly idle.

Really, you don’t lose until you stop trying.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

You see, God helps only people who work hard. That principle is very clear.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Muhammad Ali is a legend, a hero of mine.

The odds of me coming into the rocket business, not knowing anything about rockets, not having ever built anything, I mean, I would have to be insane if I thought the odds were in my favor.

Fight with a happy heart.

There are half a dozen subjects that I return to time and time again, and that doesn’t bother me. Because most of my favorite writers do that, to hunt down the same topic or theme from different directions each time.

I don’t know how many good books I still have in me; I hope there are another four or five.

Are we a nation that educates the world’s best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us? Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America?

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

I can take a beginner kid that has never danced in their lives, and I can teach them something, or I can take a really advanced dancer, and I can make them into a professional.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

I was a class clown. At 12, I was definitely clowning. I was making all the jokes. But I was smart, so the teachers didn’t know what to do with me.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

I believe the destiny of your generation – and your nation – is a rendezvous with excellence.

The artist alone sees spirits. But after he has told of their appearing to him, everybody sees them.

All that the future holds in store for each sacred child of God will be shaped by his or her parents, family, friends, and teachers. Thus, our faith now becomes part of our posterity’s faith later.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

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.

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

My folks ain’t graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family – and I come from a big family.

The Bible says to ‚fear not,‘ but this doesn’t mean you should never feel scared. It means when you do feel fear, keep going forward and do what you are supposed to do. Or as I like to say, do it afraid.

It’s hard to improve public education – that’s clear.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

I had this child, and it destroyed my family.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

Most employees only want to know how much they get paid and how much time off they get – they probably don’t have the mission in their souls.

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.

Religion is compulsory in English schools, you know.

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

I do not live on false promises. I cannot afford to live on bad advice.

Every day that is born into the world comes like a burst of music and rings the whole day through, and you make of it a dance, a dirge, or a life march, as you will.

I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

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%.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

I have my permanent muses and my muses of the moment.

Life is a constant oscillation between the sharp horns of dilemmas.

It was high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‚always do what you are afraid to do.‘

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

The Bible tells us to be perfect. This is likely a scary thought for many people. It used to scare me. I didn’t think I could ever get there, no matter how hard I tried.

I used to consider the listener. But now I’m in a space where, if I’m not inspired, I can’t really do the music. I can’t feel it.

Didn’t get promoted? Good. More time to get better.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.