We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

It’s lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

Never mistake motion for action.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

If you’re in this business and you are scared, then you better do something else.

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I’ve had periods in my life when I’ve had a bundle of ideas come along, and I’ve had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I’ll do something. If not, I won’t do a damn thing.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

The first decade of the twentieth century was not a great time to be born black and poor and female in St. Louis, Missouri, but Vivian Baxter was born black and poor, to black and poor parents. Later she would grow up and be called beautiful. As a grown woman she would be known as the butter-colored lady with the blowback hair.

You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.

I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine.

I believe growth should be constant, sustained and inclusive. It’s only meaningful if these three things are there. Otherwise they’re just economic figures.

Before finding music, I didn’t have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.

We don’t have to let extremists define us.

You must take the compromise to win, or else nothing. That means: you race or you do not.

I work very hard, but when God opens that door for you – when life opens that door for you, I should say – I think it’s important to be giving, to return the love back.

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

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

That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake.

Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.

Goodness is the only investment that never fails.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

The person who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

In any profession it gets to be a grind.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

I’m filthy rich!

A great thing can only be done by a great person; and they do it without effort.

I would like to see people more aware of where their food comes from. I would like to see small farmers empowered. I feed my daughter almost exclusively organic food.

Feminism… I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‚Free to be You and Me.‘

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‚em, ‚Certainly I can!‘ Then get busy and find out how to do it.

People in their handlings of affairs often fail when they are about to succeed. If one remains as careful at the end as he was at the beginning, there will be no failure.

You sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

We can continue to learn generation after generation and now is time to begin to learn how to love in a non-discriminatory way because we are intelligent enough, but we are not loving enough as a species.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.

I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation. Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

I’ve had all six of my books reach the New York Times bestseller list, which is especially rewarding seeing as I flunked out of high school twice because I couldn’t write. It just goes to show you that we learn from our mistakes.

In pop music, the public usually see the results – the hit records, the Grammy Awards performances, the concert tours – but not all the work that goes into getting into the spotlight. And not everyone realizes that, even if you have a lot of talent, chances are you won’t make it.

My role 14 years ago in Richard III – that was the first time I played a bad guy and learned a lot about it – they have all the fun!

Thanks to my fans that have been with me from the beginning, I was able to sell out arenas on my own.

I don’t go to bed at 1 A.M. and wake up at 5 A.M. and say, ‚Let’s see if I can get this done today.‘

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

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

Even as you make progress, you need the discipline to keep from backtracking and sabotaging the success as it’s happening.

It is not God’s will merely that we should be happy, but that we should make ourselves happy.

If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘

No matter what, people grow. If you chose not to grow, you’re staying in a small box with a small mindset. People who win go outside of that box. It’s very simple when you look at it.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

After all those years in Asia, I don’t have to do promotion anymore. We just release a Jackie Chan movie and – Boom! – people go.