The men I idolized built their bodies and became somebody – like Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger – and I thought, ‚That can be me.‘ So I started working out. The funny thing is I didn’t realize back then that I was having a defining moment.

I think, because I started Virgin when I was a teenager, it has become a part of me, like my family, and I am motivated by ambition for it, almost as if it were a child.

Civil disobedience’s main goal typically is to try to arouse and inspire others to join and do something. Well, sometimes that is a good tactic, sometimes not.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

My attitude has always been, if you fall flat on your face, at least you’re moving forward. All you have to do is get back up and try again.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

You know, watching Dan Marino and Steve Young get nominated to the Hall of Fame… those guys are unbelievable and they did it for so long. I’d love to play like those guys, but there’s still a long way to go and a lot of growing.

I had given up some youth for knowledge, but my gain was more valuable than the loss.

I think we need more idiot control.

Over the years, I’ve learned that a confident person doesn’t concentrate or focus on their weaknesses – they maximize their strengths.

Kitty Wells was the first and only Queen of Country Music, no matter what they call the rest of us. She was a great inspiration to me as well as every other female singer in the country music business. In addition to being a wonderful asset to country music, she was a wonderful woman.

It usually helps me write by reading – somehow the reading gear in your head turns the writing gear.

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.

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

When you’re coming up with new material, it’s not always gonna be good. The only way to learn is for it not to get a laugh, so you can adjust it and come back the next day to see if it’s working right. Next time, you might get a different laugh. You’re constantly rebuilding.

The best is the enemy of the good.

He is the greatest artist who has embodied, in the sum of his works, the greatest number of the greatest ideas.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

Even after a bad harvest there must be sowing.

You have to be someone.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.

I kept writing not because I felt I was so good, but because I felt they were so bad, including Shakespeare, all those. The stilted formalism, like chewing cardboard.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.

To take a few nouns, and a few pronouns, and adverbs and adjectives, and put them together, ball them up, and throw them against the wall to make them bounce. That’s what Norman Mailer did. That’s what James Baldwin did, and Joan Didion did, and that’s what I do – that’s what I mean to do.

Live to learn, and you will really learn to live.

I don’t want to make money, I just want to be wonderful.

I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

Understand this law and you will then know, beyond room for the slightest doubt, that you are constantly punishing yourself for every wrong you commit and rewarding yourself for every act of constructive conduct in which you indulge.

Loving others always costs us something and requires effort. And you have to decide to do it on purpose. You can’t wait for a feeling to motivate you.

I think it’s my responsibility, as a person of influence… to sometimes try to do what I can.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.

Jump, and you will find out how to unfold your wings as you fall.

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‚em, ‚Certainly I can!‘ Then get busy and find out how to do it.

It’s so easy to settle for less than God’s best for us because we don’t always feel like taking responsibility for our behavior or putting forth some effort to do what we need to do so we can accomplish great things for God and help people. But the cost of settling for less is actually harder than being completely obedient to God’s will.

Men are born to succeed, not to fail.

The beginning is the most important part of the work.

I always kind of see how I want things to be better, and I’m generally not happy with how things are or the level of service that we’re providing for people or the quality of the teams that we built. But if you look at this objectively, we’re doing so well on so many of these things. I think it’s important to have gratitude for that.

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.

When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

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

I just think it is important that you realize, that you’re the best in the world. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you’re libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.

To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves.

Women have to summon up courage to fulfill dormant dreams.

I had to get rich so I could sing like I was poor again.

I never cut class. I loved getting A’s, I liked being smart. I liked being on time. I thought being smart is cooler than anything in the world.

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors, and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

When something an affliction happens to you, you either let it defeat you, or you defeat it.

I myself would like to become more disciplined within my work.

I could not do what I do, and teach a class, and never miss a deadline, never be late for anything if I was a lush, OK? I would really love to read a piece that said, ‚He is not a lush.‘ That would be fabulous, it would be a first, I could show it to people and say, ‚Look!‘

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

Education is what you learn after you leave school.

When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain.

History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.

What you have outside you counts less than what you have inside you.