The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.

For a long time, I had the idea that I would do a certain amount of work the best I could, and then I would reach a comfort zone, and I wouldn’t be pushed to write more. I would become a different person. It’s a surprise to me that this hasn’t happened. Your body ages, but your mind is the same.

If I’d observed all the rules, I’d never have got anywhere.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

If you hear a voice within you say ‚you cannot paint,‘ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

If I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

I’m 31 now. I think I’m beginning to understand what life is, what romance is, and what a relationship means.

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

I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.

The Mind that lies fallow but a single Day, sprouts up in Follies that are only to be killed by a constant and assiduous Culture.

Never regret what you don’t write.

I have certain guys who I looked up to. Jordan, Kobe, those guys. Passing that on to doing my part to kind of keep that influence of basketball where it should be is kind of why I play the game.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

You don’t lead by hitting people over the head – that’s assault, not leadership.

If you even dream of beating me you’d better wake up and apologize.

We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

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

I’m not in control of my muse. My muse does all the work.

At the end of the day, I understand that life has road blocks, and life is like school – you’ll be tested; we gotta pass it.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

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

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

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.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

The greatest heroes are those who do their duty in the daily grind of domestic affairs whilst the world whirls as a maddening dreidel.

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

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

It’s good to wander into the studio and walk out with something that’s better than you’d imagined it to be. If everything was as you imagined it to be, it just wouldn’t be as much fun.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

To be successful, you need results in a row. You can’t win, lose, win, lose.

Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.

Music is not math. It’s science. You keep mixing the stuff up until it blows up on you, or it becomes this incredible potion.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable.

I don’t tell people, ‚You’re okay the way that you are.‘ That’s not the right story. The right story is, ‚You’re way less than you could be.‘

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Success is counted sweetest by those who never succeed.

You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

The miracle is not that we do this work, but that we are happy to do it.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

It is more difficult to rule yourself than to rule a city.

Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.

Being a hero is about the shortest-lived profession on earth.

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

To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.