Unless and until you inspire the people, you will not get results. Imposition will never give you the results. Inspiration will always give you the results.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I’ll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want you to write it. And then sometimes you see a situation and think, ‚I’d like to write about that.‘ Those are two different ways of being approached by a poem, or approaching a poem.

In ninth grade, I came up with a new form of rebellion. I hadn’t been getting good grades, but I decided to get all A’s without taking a book home. I didn’t go to math class, because I knew enough and had read ahead, and I placed within the top 10 people in the nation on an aptitude exam.

You are victors, not victims!

Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Bill Gates has always been a mentor and inspiration for me even before I knew him. Just growing up, I admired how Microsoft was mission-focused.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

I realized why directors are such horrible people – in a way – because you want things to be right, and people will just not listen to you, and there is no time to be nice to people, no time to be delicate.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it.

It’s like a muscle – if you stop going to the gym or stop running, you get weak. The military teaches you these great values, but we don’t keep up the discipline on our own, and we lose it. So wherever you go, keep that discipline up.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

I’m really bad with answering questions. Usually, I don’t even answer them. I try to find inspiration inside of the question. I think, and I jump from one beam of inspiration or energy to the next, as opposed to explaining the energy.

Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.

The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people.

I believe the returns on investment in the poor are just as exciting as successes achieved in the business arena, and they are even more meaningful!

I’m kind of fascist with myself, you know.

Every once in a while, I get mad. ‚The Lorax‘ came out of my being angry. The ecology books I’d read were dull… In ‚The Lorax,‘ I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might.

You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.

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.

A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

Critics only make you stronger. You have to look at what they are saying as feedback. Sometimes the feedback helps, and other times, it’s just noise that can be a distraction.

When I got depressed, I watched Bruce Lee movies. I learned everything from Bruce Lee.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

I love those who yearn for the impossible.

A conductor can’t be too arrogant with an orchestra and try to impose himself too much.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.

If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds.

It’s not an experiment if you know it’s going to work.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Do I think faith will be an important part of being a good president? Yes, I do.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.

To me, the most important artists in my career are Arcangel and Balvin. Arcangel gave me the push, the respect in the streets.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

Ability is nothing without opportunity.

I have been on the road and visited numerous places and met people from all over the globe. I can say that it looks nearly the same everywhere I have been: The climate crisis is ignored by people in charge, despite the science being crystal clear.

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

Heroes may not be braver than anyone else. They’re just braver five minutes longer.

Good planning is important. I’ve also regarded a sense of humor as one of the most important things on a big expedition. When you’re in a difficult or dangerous situation, or when you’re depressed about the chances of success, someone who can make you laugh eases the tension.

I never worry about action, but only inaction.

You have enough people against you… be for yourself.

Music is really driving my whole life.

Blessed are the people whose leaders can look destiny in the eye without flinching but also without attempting to play God.

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by now.