The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not.

Tomorrow is nothing, today is too late; the good lived yesterday.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

We can take a ‚It was hard to get there.‘ But we ain’t taking no loss. We’re going to win.

I like policy. It’s why I decided to enter government. The other thing I like about government – you have good days, you have bad days, but you never have a boring day, and that’s important to me.

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

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

As a producer, as a CEO of Hartbeat Productions, I am making deals to put my company in place to win, to put my staff to work so that while all this stuff is going on, they’re in the kitchen cooking. So it’s understanding the longevity of the entertainment business; you get out of it what you put into it.

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.

In business, success often depends upon the relative age of your ideas.

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 harder I work, the luckier I become.

Microsoft has had two goals in the last 10 years. One was to copy the Mac, and the other was to copy Lotus‘ success in the spreadsheet – basically, the applications business. And over the course of the last 10 years, Microsoft accomplished both of those goals. And now they are completely lost.

The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get up out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win – you pass the test.

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.

I need to do well and show I’m a worthy driver in F1.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

Competitions are a business, first and foremost.

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

Often people become our friend or follower with an undercurrent of resentment in our having more success than they have. They secretly desire the opportunity to take us down a notch; they have a nose for any misstep on our part they can exploit.

Success is steady progress toward one’s personal goals.

We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you’ve blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.

When I won the first Grammy, there was no other feeling like that feeling. It just made me feel like I came so far, like that was just a dream a few years before that, and then it was happening right then.

In this knowledge-worker age, it’s now increasingly tied to doing well in school so you can get into better grad schools so you can get better jobs – so the pressure to do well is really high.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

Movies are not novels, and that’s why, when filmmakers try to adapt novels, particularly long or complex novels, the result is almost always failure. It can’t be done.

When the first big paycheque with ‚Dumb And Dumber‘ hit, I went: ‚Gosh, I wonder if this will affect my performance. Will I do a take and think, was that worth $7 million?‘ But that never happened. If anything, it made me rebel against that thing when people who get rich start playing it safe.

If I’m a star, then the people made me a star.

Dream and you shall become.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies.

While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst, and with continued unity of effort, we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States – that is, prosperity.

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.

As for accomplishments, I just did what I had to do as things came along.

For a true writer, each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

I’ve always strived to be successful, not famous.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

I have so much that I want to do. I hate wasting time.

It’s a rule to give all, and it can make the difference if you work more. If you don’t have to give all, and you still win, what’s this?

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

Success and failure are equally disastrous.

The closest I ever came to getting married was just before I started singing. In fact, my first record saved my neck.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, who assisted him, shall be with me and aid me, I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail – I shall succeed.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Failed plans should not be interpreted as a failed vision. Visions don’t change, they are only refined. Plans rarely stay the same, and are scrapped or adjusted as needed. Be stubborn about the vision, but flexible with your plan.

Any man can call time out, but no man can say how long the time out will be.

Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

From the moment I open my eyes, I’m trying to free my body. I’m trying to get looser, more flexible, to gain control. Movement is medicine to me.

He who has not the spirit of this age, has all the misery of it.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.