We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

I have goals.

It is the set of the sails, not the direction of the wind that determines which way we will go.

That feeling is so intoxicating, walking off the court holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. So I just want to do that again.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

I don’t let even a day go by wherein I don’t give at 100 per cent.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.

If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I’d still swim. And I’d despise the one who gave up.

Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.

Our generation in the west was lucky: we had readymade gateways. We had books, paper, teachers, schools and libraries. But many in the world lack these luxuries. How do you practice without such tryout venues?

They know enough who know how to learn.

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

The difference between average people and achieving people is their perception of and response to failure.

If you look at anyone who has achieved great success and wealth, people like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or Lance Armstrong, they have all focused intensely in order to win.

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.

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

I used to feel unsafe right in the moment of an accomplishment – I felt the ground fall from under my feet because this could be the end. And even now, while everyone is celebrating, I’m on to the next thing. I don’t want to get lost in this big cushion of success.

Follow your honest convictions and be strong.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

If you try to fight the course, it will beat you.

Everything is my demon muse. I have a muse which whispers in my ear and says, ‚Do this, do that,‘ but it’s my demon who provokes me.

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.

You’ve got to go out on a limb sometimes because that’s where the fruit is.

Quitting is the easiest thing to do.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them.

Because I know about the Holy Land, I’ve taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life, and – but you can’t bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well.

In poor countries, we still need better ways to measure the effectiveness of the many government workers providing health services. They are the crucial link bringing tools such as vaccines and education to the people who need them most. How well trained are they? Are they showing up to work?

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide.

Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment.

Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that’s real power.

I did go to Wellesley, a women’s college. And I am of a kind of strange generation which is transitional in terms of women who wanted to go out and get jobs.

Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice.

When I’m in the studio, I’m looking for creativity I haven’t matched yet, a feeling I haven’t felt. It’s a high.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

Even when you’re 50, you can make the effort to improve your standards.

It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?

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 have dreams, and I want to see them come to fruition.

I got the stern end of the stick. It was kind of that iron fist. I am who I am today because of my mother.

Everything I learned I learned from the movies.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.

As an athlete, you’d better laugh at yourself when you slip in the mud.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

Losing is tough.

The worst thing that happens to you may be the best thing for you if you don’t let it get the best of you.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

The more nobly a man wills and acts, the more avid he becomes for great and sublime aims to pursue. He will no longer be content with family, country, and the remunerative aspect of his work. He will want wider organisations to create, new paths to blaze, causes to uphold, truths to discover, an ideal to cherish and defend.

The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.

Great tragedy has come to us, and we are meeting it with the best that is in our country, with courage and concern for others because this is America. This is who we are.

Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age.

What destroys more self-confidence than any other educational thing in America is being assigned to some remedial math when you get into some college, and then it’s not taught very well and you end up with this sense of, ‚Hey, I can’t really figure those things out.‘

When all is said and done, more is said than done.

It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.

You were not created to just get by with an average, unrewarding, or unfulfilling life. God created you to leave your mark on this generation.