There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon absolute truth.

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.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

Prosperity is the best protector of principle.

Life is too short to be little. Man is never so manly as when he feels deeply, acts boldly, and expresses himself with frankness and with fervor.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

If what you have done is unjust, you have not succeeded.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

Everything I have, my career, my success, my family, I owe to America.

There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.

Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there’s gonna come a time that you’re gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.

I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‚Funny Face‘ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

No one can be happy who has been thrust outside the pale of truth. And there are two ways that one can be removed from this realm: by lying, or by being lied to.

Why don’t you start believing that no matter what you have or haven’t done, that your best days are still out in front of you.

We moved into the back, made it into a little 50s sitting room and started to sell the records. We had an immediate success. For one thing, these Teddy Boys were thrilled to buy the records.

Expecting is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation of tomorrow, it loses today.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

The existentialist says at once that man is anguish.

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.

I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.

To do nothing is also a good remedy.

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

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

Whatever you want to do, do with full passion and work really hard towards it. Don’t look anywhere else. There will be a few distractions, but if you can be true to yourself, you will be successful for sure.

Success is not greedy, as people think, but insignificant. That is why it satisfies nobody.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.

Ambition is the germ from which all growth of nobleness proceeds.

Have you not learned that strength comes to an ordinary soul when given an extraordinary calling?

We should not be so taken up in the search for truth, as to neglect the needful duties of active life; for it is only action that gives a true value and commendation to virtue.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

I wish every American had an opportunity to sit down, to go to a base, to meet with families, to meet with service members, to sit down with our veterans – because we would think differently about our challenges as individuals.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. But it’s exciting to be able to have the opportunity to do things I always dreamed of as a kid.

To teach how to live without certainty and yet without being paralysed by hesitation is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy, in our age, can do for those who study it.

Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.

I care very deeply about the people at Tesla. I feel like I have a great debt to the people of Tesla who are making the company successful.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

You know, when I have a bad game, it continues to humble me and know that, you know, you still have work to do and you still have a lot of people to impress.

The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool.

I’m not afraid to die, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

The paradox of courage is that a man must be a little careless of his life even in order to keep it.

I’m not a marketing person. I don’t ask myself questions. I go by instinct.

The business aspect is one of the most important things about having a music career, because every choice you make in a management meeting affects your life a year-and-a-half from now.

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever – this is a somewhat new kind of religion.

I don’t think there’s any point going for second or third.

Rightly defined philosophy is simply the love of wisdom.

In everything one thing is impossible: rationality.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

A man is not paid for having a head and hands, but for using them.

Do your job. Do it the best you can. Do it right, because somebody, sometimes your best friend, is waiting for you to screw up so she can take your place.

If some years were added to my life, I would give fifty to the study of the Yi, and then I might come to be without great faults.