The harder I work, the luckier I become.

I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.

I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.

When I was writing the Destiny’s Child songs, it was a big thing to be that young and taking control. And the label at the time didn’t know that we were going to be that successful, so they gave us all control. And I got used to it.

And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high.

Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.

Well, I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident, because when you get overconfident, that’s when something snaps up and bites you.

I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.

Nothing will work unless you do.

I was raised on, ‚You go get a nine-to-five job, earn your pay and work your way up.‘

It’s certainly not wrong to want to be a better person. God gave us that desire.

As your career grows, the list of things that makes you happy should not become smaller, it should become bigger.

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

Every setback means you’re one step closer to seeing the dream come to pass.

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.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

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.

There’s a long way to fall when you pretend that you’re so far away from the earth, far away from reality, floating in a bubble that’s protected by fame or success. It’s scary, and it’s the thing I fear the most: to be swallowed up by that bubble. It can be poison to you, fame.

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

Have convictions. Be friendly. Stick to your beliefs as they stick to theirs. Work as hard as they do.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

I don’t know what drives me to succeed.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

Success is due to our stretching to the challenges of life. Failure comes when we shrink from them.

Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.

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

If I’ve got something do. I’m going to attack it. I’m going to attack that stress.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible.

I have worked hard since my childhood and worked as a labourer. I put my mind and heart into it.

I intend to inspire people with my story: motivate young people that grew up like myself, or even not like myself. Just, you know, go through the human experience.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

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

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.

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.

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

There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere.

I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

God puts people in our lives on purpose so we can help them succeed and help them become all He created them to be. Most people will not reach their full potential without somebody else believing in them.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

Quitting doesn’t enter my mind.

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

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.

Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.

A good indignation brings out all one’s powers.

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.

I do not like to repeat successes, I like to go on to other things.