The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

I’m sure I’ve changed my mind about something. Inevitably, when we grow up – as we get more experience and wiser. Well, I’ve changed my mind about some food that I didn’t like when I was young.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.

Purity is the feminine, truth the masculine of honor.

Someone said to me, ‚If fifty percent of the experts in Hollywood said you had no talent and should give up, what would you do?‘ My answer was then and still is, ‚If a hundred percent told me that, all one hundred percent would be wrong.‘

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

In those days he was wiser than he is now; he used to frequently take my advice.

What one fool can understand, another can.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

Hey, I think it’s easy for guys to hit .300 and stay in the big leagues. Hit .200 and try to stick around as long as I did; I think it’s a much greater accomplishment. That’s hard.

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

Some old men, continually praise the time of their youth. In fact, you would almost think that there were no fools in their days, but unluckily they themselves are left as an example.

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.

Wherever the enemy wants to fight, we will follow him to the ends of the Earth. We’ll adapt, we’ll train, we’ll advise, we’ll mentor, and we’ll fight, and we’ll fight well.

The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief.

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!

The ideas gained by men before they are twenty-five are practically the only ideas they shall have in their lives.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.

The wit knows that his place is at the tail of a procession.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease, but it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition.

I nearly failed when Virgin was in its infancy; I nearly failed in the early 1980s, and, of course, I have nearly died more than once trying to achieve a world record for boating or ballooning. But through a combination of luck and planning, both Virgin and I are still here.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Our inquiring friends and neighbors not of our faith can also catch the wave. We encourage them to keep all that is good and true in their lives. And we invite them to receive more, especially the glorious truth that through God’s eternal plan, families can be together forever.

It took me 40 years to write my first book. When I was a child, I was encouraged to go to school. I was not encouraged to follow the career of a writer because my parents thought that I was going to starve to death.

Eradications are special. Zero is a magic number. You either do what it takes to get to zero and you’re glad you did it; or you get close, give up and it goes back to where it was before, in which case you wasted all that credibility, activity, money that could have been applied to other things.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

I wish everyone well, but you need to focus on yourself. You need to stop putting your hand out. Everyone wants hand outs. Everyone wants things for free. You’ve got to put in the work. You’ve got to grind. You’ve got go through the struggle, and you’ve got to get it.

The higher a man stands, the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him.

My faith was tested like Job. That’s the message I try to tell other people: just because you believe in God, serve God, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, people gotta realize, it don’t mean things not gonna happen to you.

The greatest difficulty always comes right before the birth of a dream.

Sometimes in the past when I played something might make me lose focus, or I would go home after a game where I thought I could have played better and I would let it hang over my head for a long time when it shouldn’t.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

As a man sow, shall he reap. and I know that talk is cheap. But the heat of the battle is as sweet as the victory.

Kitchens are hard environments and they form incredibly strong characters.

Two qualities are indispensable: first, an intellect that, even in the darkest hour, retains some glimmerings of the inner light which leads to truth; and second, the courage to follow this faint light wherever it may lead.

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.

Wisdom alone is the science of other sciences.

Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

I’ve heard there are troubles of more than one kind; some come from ahead, and some come from behind. But I’ve brought a big bat. I’m all ready, you see; now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!

It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.

There is a rollicking kindness that looks like malice.

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

When the negative thoughts come – and they will; they come to all of us – it’s not enough to just not dwell on it… You’ve got to replace it with a positive thought.

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

Courage is knowing what not to fear.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

Non-violence and truth are inseparable and presuppose one another.

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.

When things are going bad, don’t get all bummed out. Don’t get startled; don’t get frustrated. If you can say the word ‚good,‘ guess what? It means you’re still alive. It means you’re still breathing.

Every book you pick up has its own lesson or lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.