The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‚If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?‘ And whenever the answer has been ‚No‘ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.

I remember they used to tell me, they said, ‚Khaled, you can’t get a Rolls-Royce; you need to get one of them small ones.‘ So I went and bought a Phantom.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

The doer alone learneth.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

I’m sure that at no point in my life could I ever have shown the kind of focus and discipline and commitment necessary to work a station at elBulli or Le Bernardin. No. That ain’t me.

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

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

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

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.

The longer a man’s fame is likely to last, the longer it will be in coming.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.

It is a most delightful reflection that if I come to the throne of God in prayer, I may feel a thousand defects, but yet there is hope. I usually feel more dissatisfied with my prayers than with anything else I do.

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

I am still far from being what I want to be, but with God’s help I shall succeed.

How you played in yesterday’s game is all that counts.

The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

No man was ever great by imitation.

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.

You do the policy, I’ll do the politics.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

It constitutes a superhuman effort to lead any people in times of crisis. Without them, the changes would be impossible.

Plenty of people wish to become devout, but no one wishes to be humble.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

Being the boss anywhere is lonely. Being a female boss in a world of mostly men is especially so.

People have to go through trials and tribulations to get where they at. Do your thing – continue to rock it – because obviously, God wants you here.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.

I have a message to give to the world, and I shall not be thwarted.

It is possible to live happily in the here and the now. So many conditions of happiness are available – more than enough for you to be happy right now. You don’t have to run into the future in order to get more.

There are people in the world who have skills and strength and talent that I will never have. Never. These notions that you can ‚be whatever you want to be as long as you want it bad enough‘ are not true. They are fairy tales.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

Better is the enemy of good.

‚Happiness‘ is a pointless goal.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

There is only one sort of discipline, perfect discipline.

It’s normal for human beings to identify with their own separate self. The problem is that we get caught in that notion of ourself as a separate individual and caught in that individual self’s agenda.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

Fame is ultimately about the cycles of desire and how to do away with them or manage them well.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

Racing, competing, it’s in my blood. It’s part of me, it’s part of my life; I have been doing it all my life and it stands out above everything else.

If I get stuck, I look at a book that tells me how someone else did it. I turn the pages, and then I say, ‚Oh, I forgot that bit,‘ then close the book and carry on. Finally, after you’ve figured out how to do it, you read how they did it and find out how dumb your solution is and how much more clever and efficient theirs is!

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.

The fearful unbelief is unbelief in yourself.

And winning is a huge thing for me.

Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it all just hurts.

Know that any and all thoughts that you have regarding your own skills, interests, and inclinations are valid. To reinforce the validity of your thoughts, keep them private. Tell yourself that they’re between you and God.

He who gives away shall have real gain. He who subdues himself shall be free; he shall cease to be a slave of passions. The righteous man casts off evil, and by rooting out lust, bitterness, and illusion do we reach Nirvana.

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.

It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself.

I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

A gypsy told me I was going to do great things. I was going to make all kinds of money.