The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

A broad margin of leisure is as beautiful in a man’s life as in a book. Haste makes waste, no less in life than in housekeeping. Keep the time, observe the hours of the universe, not of the cars.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

Life consists in what a man is thinking of all day.

I don’t want to just revolve. I want to evolve. As a man, as a human, as a father, as a lover.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

I failed to make the chess team because of my height.

If there is only one thing in my life that I am proud of, it’s that I’ve never been a kept woman.

In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

We are the creative force of our life, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.

Few men would dare to read their own autobiography if all their deeds were recorded in it; few can look back upon their entire career without a blush.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

I’m a whopping 5 foot 4 inches tall. I’m not going to get any taller.

My view is that at a younger age your optimism is more and you have more imagination etc. You have less bias.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

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

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.

But if I have a lot of imagination, I could tell myself whatever I wanted, you know. I handle myself quite well. I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know. There’s no discussion. There is an order. You follow it.

Before all else, be armed.

When things are really dismal, you can laugh, or you can cave in completely.

You can’t go backward in life.

Life is about growing and improving and getting better.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

God gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.

I think I mainly climb mountains because I get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. I never attempt to analyze these things too thoroughly, but I think that all mountaineers do get a great deal of satisfaction out of overcoming some challenge which they think is very difficult for them, or which perhaps may be a little dangerous.

I’m hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.

To hold a man down, you have to stay down with him.

Peace in the world starts with peace in oneself. If everyone lives mindfully, everyone will be more healthy, feel more fulfilled in their daily lives and there will be more peace.

I don’t have much positive to say about motor neurone disease. But it taught me not to pity myself because others were worse off, and to get on with what I could still do.

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

You have to steal a lot. You have to have a criminal mentality to be a film director.

As you get older it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.

I was hit by a car once on my bike, but I still rode home.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

I’m not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It’s really not my place.

I didn’t know how to deal with success. If there was a Rock Star 101, I would have liked to take it. It might have helped me.

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

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones. Any nobleness begins at once to refine a man’s features, any meanness or sensuality to imbrute them.

I haven’t been faithful to my own advice in the past. I will in the future.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

I grew up with my career being thrust upon me. It took me a long time to believe that I could do more than that one aspect of our business.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

I wasn’t sure of the exact mindset you should have when you go into a Test match. So I probably became too defensive when I played my first Test match. Short balls in one-day cricket, I have never thought of just defending.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

Where much is expected from an individual, he may rise to the level of events and make the dream come true.

To become ‚unique,‘ the challenge is to fight the hardest battle which anyone can imagine until you reach your destination.

I played a great horse yesterday! It took seven horses to beat him.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.