That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

Nearly all the powerful people of this age are unbelievers, the best of them in doubt and misery, the most in plodding hesitation, doing as well as they can, what practical work lies at hand.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

All my life affection has been showered upon me, and every forward step I have made has been taken in spite of it.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

I’m a can-do girl.

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

Now that I’m a parent, I understand why my father was in a bad mood a lot.

If you’re not ready for everything, you’re not ready for anything.

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

I have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.

Don’t give in to excuses that can keep you from really living the best life God has for you.

I explain the law of compensation like this: ‚Returns are minimal in spite of massive effort at the start, yet returns can be massive with minimal effort over time.

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.

The truth is, anyone can start projects. The world is full of just-started projects that looked great at the time but were never completed.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

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

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it… Success is shy – it won’t come out while you’re watching.

Commit yourself to a mighty purpose.

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

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

If a guy hits .300 every year, what does he have to look forward to? I always tried to stay around .190, with three or four RBI. And I tried to get them all in September. That way I always had something to talk about during the winter.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

The best morale exist when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it’s usually lousy.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Remembering what you’ve been through and how that has strengthened your mindset can lift you out of a negative brain loop and help you bypass those weak, one-second impulses to give in. Even if you’re feeling low and beat down by life right now, I guarantee you can think of a time or two when you overcame odds and tasted success.

Everybody has a purpose.

The good part about youngsters is that they are so fearless. You want to be like them.

The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists. That is why they invented Hell.

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.

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.

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

People always say that you can’t please everybody. I think that’s a cop-out. Why not attempt it? ‚Cause think of all the people you will please if you try.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

If you are a small company taking on a big company, you need to have a sense of humor.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

When you are organizing a group of people, the first thing that we do is we talk about the history of what other people have been able to accomplish – people that look like them, workers like them, ordinary people, working people – and we give them the list: these are people like yourself; this is what they were able to do in their community.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

I’ve felt like an outsider all my life. It comes from my mother, who always felt like an outsider in my father’s family. She was a powerful woman, and she motivated my father.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

I shook up the world, I shook up the world.

You can’t die with an unfinished book.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

Execute every act of thy life as though it were thy last.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

I’m dying to be a great dad one day, whenever that day comes.