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

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

I think a role model is a mentor – someone you see on a daily basis, and you learn from them.

That was always the difference between Muhammad Ali and the rest of us. He came, he saw, and if he didn’t entirely conquer – he came as close as anybody we are likely to see in the lifetime of this doomed generation.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

As we advance in life we learn the limits of our abilities.

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

Through my education, I didn’t just develop skills, I didn’t just develop the ability to learn, but I developed confidence.

The healthiest competition occurs when average people win by putting above average effort.

There is no blue without yellow and without orange.

Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.

One of the benefits of playing to small audiences in small clubs for a few years is that you’re allowed to fail.

If you’re going to wake up early all the time, and you’re working hard, and you’re working out, sometimes you’re going to get tired. It’s OK. It’s acceptable – somewhat. We’re all human, unfortunately.

We have art in order not to die of the truth.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

The one excellent thing that can be learned from a lion is that whatever a man intends doing should be done by him with a whole-hearted and strenuous effort.

Love is easy, and I love writing. You can’t resist love. You get an idea, someone says something, and you’re in love.

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.

It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins.

I was a class clown. At 12, I was definitely clowning. I was making all the jokes. But I was smart, so the teachers didn’t know what to do with me.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

One thing is sure. We have to do something. We have to do the best we know how at the moment… If it doesn’t turn out right, we can modify it as we go along.

My mother was and will always remain my greatest hero.

Anytime I feel lost, I pull out a map and stare. I stare until I have reminded myself that life is a giant adventure, so much to do, to see.

With patient and firm determination, I am going to press on for jobs. I’m going to press on for equality. I’m going to press on for the sake of our children. I’m going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I am going to press on.

I don’t know what can be so dangerous about giving people hope. Causing people to have better relationships. I’m not leading them to some false God or something like that.

What good are fans? You can’t eat applause for breakfast. You can’t sleep with it.

Studies serve for delight, for ornaments, and for ability.

Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.

Losing is tough.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

Live out of your imagination, not your history.

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

Once someone has spent enough time cultivating bad habits and biding their time, they are much diminished. Much of what they could have been has dissipated.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

I’m not afraid to make mistakes.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated.

In karting, you turn up and drive, look at the data and go home. But I like doing more, learning about the engines and how to make them go even better.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

I can take a beginner kid that has never danced in their lives, and I can teach them something, or I can take a really advanced dancer, and I can make them into a professional.

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

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

I can’t ever remember sitting around and saying, ‚gosh let’s hurry up and get these debates going, that’ll win it for me.‘ Nope.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

Experience is the teacher of all things.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

I did go to Wellesley, a women’s college. And I am of a kind of strange generation which is transitional in terms of women who wanted to go out and get jobs.

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.