We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

There’s a lack of people in power that are motivated by the idea of helping people.

Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.

The starting point of all achievement is desire.

If you tell me there’s something I can’t do, I’ll want to do it even more. Especially when it comes to entertaining.

Over a 10-year period, 99 out of 100 new entrepreneurs will fail. Only one will be left standing as others get pushed out of the market or burn out from working so hard. It’s really sad.

Of course, I do everything for money.

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

Man is not made for defeat.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Don’t ever doubt yourselves or waste a second of your life. It’s too short, and you’re too special.

Because, you know, resilience – if you think of it in terms of the Gold Rush, then you’d be pretty depressed right now because the last nugget of gold would be gone. But the good thing is, with innovation, there isn’t a last nugget. Every new thing creates two new questions and two new opportunities.

I was born in Harlem, raised in the South Bronx, went to public school, got out of public college, went into the Army, and then I just stuck with it.

Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it’s hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.

A lot of dreams can turn to nightmares… if you don’t really work them.

Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

Imperfection clings to a person, and if they wait till they are brushed off entirely, they would spin for ever on their axis, advancing nowhere.

I know the blessing of having a dad who played 16 years in the league. That experience, and seeing him as an example, let me know that it’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

It’s physical. If you keep on writing for three years, every day, you should be strong. Of course you have to be strong mentally, also. But in the first place you have to be strong physically. That is a very important thing. Physically and mentally you have to be strong.

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

It’s not worth doing something unless you were doing something that someone, somewere, would much rather you weren’t doing.

Every time I think that I’m getting old, and gradually going to the grave, something else happens.

I struggled with being a broke college graduate, and while all my friends were getting career jobs, I was working horrible part-time jobs. That’s why now, even when I get tired, I think, ‚This is what I asked for.‘

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.

If we don’t succeed we run the risk of failure.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

I feel that God wants me to coach; otherwise, he wouldn’t have put the desire in me.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

Fighting for one’s freedom, struggling towards being free, is like struggling to be a poet or a good Christian or a good Jew or a good Muslim or good Zen Buddhist. You work all day long and achieve some kind of level of success by nightfall, go to sleep and wake up the next morning with the job still to be done. So you start all over again.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

What one has to do usually can be done.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

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

We usually lose today, because there has been a yesterday, and tomorrow is coming.

I’m always disappointed when people don’t live up to their potential. I know that a number of people look down on themselves and consequently on everybody who looks like them. But that, too, can change.

We were poor, but we smiled.

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

I’ve had no contact with my daughter for years. That’s her choice. Anyway, you move on. If people don’t want to bother with me, fine. You know, God bless them, and move on.

Any experience that touches you, in any particular way, is good. It can be a horrible experience.

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.

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

Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible.

The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.

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