We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.

Deprived of meaningful work, men and women lose their reason for existence; they go stark, raving mad.

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

I always have to be writing.

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

You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

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.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm.

Man is not made for defeat.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

I’m not the sort of person who gives up on things. The first time we crossed the Atlantic in the balloon, it crashed, and we went on and did the Pacific. First time we crossed the Atlantic in a boat, it sank, and we went on and got the record. So, generally speaking, we will pick ourselves up, brush ourselves down, and carry on.

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over.

I knew from the age of 16 that I wanted to be a writer because I just didn’t think I could do anything else. So I read and read and wrote short stories and dreamed of escape.

Don’t give in to excuses that can keep you from really living the best life God has for you.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.

People just don’t understand how obsessed I am with winning.

The balloons only have one life and the only way of finding out whether they work is to attempt to fly around the world.

Life, if well lived, is long enough.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

If I can be a leader, I will.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

When I inspire myself, I want to spread the word because its important to be healthy. I don’t think they’re teaching us enough about that. I think we should eat better and exercise. Look who’s saying that – a guy who was 300 pounds – but I’m doing a lot better than I used to. I’m letting people know its important because it makes you feel better.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.

I strongly believe that missionaries make better products. They care more. For a missionary, it’s not just about the business. There has to be a business, and the business has to make sense, but that’s not why you do it. You do it because you have something meaningful that motivates you.

Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

I’ve always been an underdog. I feel like I beat the odds.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

When I see myself as an old woman, I just think about being happy. And hopefully, I’ll still be fly.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

The human body has two ends on it: one to create with and one to sit on. Sometimes people get their ends reversed. When this happens they need a kick in the seat of the pants.

We have a great group of guys that really sacrifice every night, care about each other, and try to play the right away.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Get off your butt and join the Marines!

Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.

Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.

In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it’s more dangerous to lose than to win.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don’t pray when it rains if you don’t pray when the sun shines.

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.

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

I have a deep, deep belief that if I tell you I’m going to crack you with a clean shot to the chin inside one minute of the first round and you will be unconscious, well, then that’s what will happen.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not, to put this plan into action.

I go to cancer wards, and I tell them guys, ‚I’ve beaten it. You can, too.‘

I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.

Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music.

Anytime someone tells me that I can’t do something, I want to do it more.

I think if I keep working in the way that I am, from the heart and from passion and with love, well, the fruits of that will keep coming.