The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

Forethought we may have, undoubtedly, but not foresight.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

If I’d had some set idea of a finish line, don’t you think I would have crossed it years ago?

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

If you wish to be a writer, write.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further.

My success isn’t a result of arrogance – it’s a result of belief.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

Becoming a writer is not a ‚career decision‘ like becoming a doctor or a policeman. You don’t choose it so much as get chosen, and once you accept the fact that you’re not fit for anything else, you have to be prepared to walk a long, hard road for the rest of your days.

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.

If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain the lazy one never.

We write for the same reason that we walk, talk, climb mountains or swim the oceans – because we can. We have some impulse within us that makes us want to explain ourselves to other human beings. That’s why we paint, that’s why we dare to love someone – because we have the impulse to explain who we are.

Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

In war there is no prize for runner-up.

I want kids to know: Don’t wait for somebody to come along and tell you you’re special. Because that may never happen.

My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.

Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.

People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they at. Do your thing – continue to rock it – because obviously, God wants you here.

I wanted to sell a million records, and I sold a million records. I wanted to go platinum; I went platinum. I’ve been working nonstop since I was 15. I don’t even know how to chill out.

I go on working for the same reason that a hen goes on laying eggs.

There is more credit and satisfaction in being a first-rate truck driver than a tenth-rate executive.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

It’s hard to tell with these Internet startups if they’re really interested in building companies or if they’re just interested in the money. I can tell you, though: If they don’t really want to build a company, they won’t luck into it. That’s because it’s so hard that if you don’t have a passion, you’ll give up.

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

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

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.

Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.

I always was that person who was hard on myself and challenged myself no matter what I was doing, whether it was passing third grade or playing basketball.

We were the first generation to have to deal with the modern stardom of football. Some handled it better than others.

If you pursue good with labor, the labor passes away but the good remains; if you pursue evil with pleasure, the pleasure passes away and the evil remains.

People tend to think that life really does progress for everyone eventually, that people progress, but actually only some people progress. The rest of the people don’t.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

Sometimes you must suffer through something to defeat your fear of it.

I am an ordinary man who worked hard to develop the talent I was given. I believed in myself, and I believe in the goodness of others.

We’re going to have to work. We’re going to have to play well. Nothing will be given to us.

I don’t know what drives me to succeed.

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent.

I’d rather be a victor than a victim.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.