We are going to transform Britain’s rail system from the worst in the world to the best. If you can do a few things like that, when the body gives out, you can say you’ve lived a good life.

I think that once you’ve had a few No. 1s in your career that you’ve kind of proven yourself, and I don’t feel the need to prove anything anymore.

Without failure there is no achievement.

I take inspiration from everyone and everything. I’m inspired by current champions, former champions, true competitors, people dedicated to their dream, hard workers, dreamers, believers, achievers.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

Where every something, being blent together turns to a wild of nothing.

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

Common Core is a big win for education.

To be able to finish opportunities that I do get in the paint, that makes a difference.

When I cut my hair, the whole sound changed, my style changed.

Of course it would be nice for everybody and myself if we could win but we can still have a personal or a team win if we achieve a target that is effectively a win for us.

Evolution can go to hell as far as I am concerned. What a mistake we are. We have mortally wounded this sweet life-supporting planet – the only one in the whole Milky Way – with a century of transportation whoopee.

Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

Being brilliant is no great feat if you respect nothing.

The great epochs of our life are the occasions when we gain the courage to rebaptize our evil qualities as our best qualities.

I like to change characters and then, slowly I believe the audience treat me as, like an actor who can fight. It’s not like an action star.

The march of the human mind is slow.

Glory follows virtue as if it were its shadow.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

I saw a picture of myself when I came out of the hospital. I didn’t recognize myself.

The thermometer of success is merely the jealousy of the malcontents.

America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles of justice and progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

You cannot make a sinner into a saint by killing him. He who does not live as a saint here will never live as a saint hereafter.

Political chaos is connected with the decay of language… one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

No man ever achieved worth-while success who did not, at one time or other, find himself with at least one foot hanging well over the brink of failure.

I’m not the same man I used to be, I’m not out hell-raising, stuff like that. I am a changed man.

I don’t measure my success anymore by the Grammys. I can’t because I’ll just end up crushed.

Sometimes what works 40 years ago doesn’t work today.

You don’t have the same mentality as you did five years ago – even one year. People are always changing, and I believe that everyone deserves the space to change and for people to recognize their change.

Change is always tough. Even for those who see themselves as agents of change, the process of starting a new thing can cause times of disorientation, uncertainty and insecurity.

I have two Golden Boot awards at home. It would be nice to win another, but I wouldn’t mind it if I didn’t.

Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.

Love to everybody who is out there progressing and taking things to the next level.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

I like to think of Everest as a great mountaineering challenge, and when you’ve got people just streaming up the mountain – well, many of them are just climbing it to get their name in the paper, really.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

On the summit of Everest, I had a feeling of great satisfaction to be first there.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

The history of mankind is the instant between two strides taken by a traveler.

New ideas pass through three periods: 1) It can’t be done. 2) It probably can be done, but it’s not worth doing. 3) I knew it was a good idea all along!

Not to go back is somewhat to advance, and men must walk, at least, before they dance.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

I probably work harder, putting in a lot of time and effort, than a lot of drivers because all I think about, and all I do, is to do with racing, trying to make myself a better driver.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

China has to go along with world trends. That’s democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.

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.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

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

Even though you are on the right track – you will get run over if you just sit there.

To be free is to have achieved your life.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.