There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

In all my work, I try to say – ‚You may be given a load of sour lemons, why not try to make a dozen lemon meringue pies?‘

If you can’t read, it’s going to be hard to realize dreams.

How to gain, how to keep, how to recover happiness is in fact for most men at all times the secret motive of all they do, and of all they are willing to endure.

Small aim is a crime.

Money won’t create success, the freedom to make it will.

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.

I believe God, Jesus, died that we not just go to Heaven but that we excel in this life. I never think you make money your goal… God wants you to excel. Just keep Him in first place, and God will open up doors you never dreamed of.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

When facing a difficult task, act as though it is impossible to fail. If you are going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce.

Control your own destiny! Control your own destiny!

I have retired, but if there’s anything that would kill me it is to wake up in the morning not knowing what to do.

When a person is going through hell, and she encounters someone who went through hellish hell and survived, then she can say, ‚Mine is not so bad as all that. She came through, and so can I.‘

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

Listen; there’s a hell of a good universe next door: let’s go.

If you do not conquer self, you will be conquered by self.

I had not expected ‚A Brief History of Time‘ to be a best seller.

Your most important work is always ahead of you, never behind you.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

Keep your nose out the sky, keep your heart to god, and keep your face to the raising sun.

I’ve never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves – it’s just a question of finding the subject.

When you begin to worry, go find something to do. Get busy being a blessing to someone; do something fruitful. Talking about your problem or sitting alone, thinking about it, does no good; it serves only to make you miserable. Above all else, remember that worrying is totally useless. Worrying will not solve your problem.

There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

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.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

I had a good time boxing. I enjoyed it – and I may come back.

I think a certain amount of stress in life is good. The stress of just working, which takes effort – I think it keeps you going.

Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress.

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when I didn’t write. I started again at 16 and have no idea why, but it was suddenly the only thing I wanted to do.

Correction does much, but encouragement does more.

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

Whether for life or death, do your own work well.

Winning, to me, is easy. Winning more is the challenge.

Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn’t write, I would stop breathing.

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

People want to feel hopeful.

It doesn’t matter if you want to be a teacher, an astronaut, or a reggaeton singer, you need to study.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

I promise you, I will have something on the Internet that is game-changing. I can’t lose.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

I’m not a chick-flick enthusiast.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.

No, I never thought I would like cats.

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

If you are going to write, say, fantasy – stop reading fantasy. You’ve already read too much. Read other things; read westerns, read history, read anything that seems interesting, because if you only read fantasy and then you start to write fantasy, all you’re going to do is recycle the same old stuff and move it around a bit.