What happens if you stick at something long enough, and study it for so long, you have a different kind of intelligence. It’s not an intellectual thing. It’s almost like an animal intelligence. I call it our form of instinct, almost how a lion knows exactly where its prey is.

Never give up on what you really want to do. The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.

Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

The best way to predict the future is to study the past, or prognosticate.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood.

You can’t be afraid to fail. It’s the only way you succeed – you’re not gonna succeed all the time, and I know that.

You throw batting practice, you warm up pitchers, you sit and cheer. You do whatever you have to do to stay on the team.

I’m very good at what I do, and I don’t turn my hand to something unless I’m very good at it, frankly.

When everything works best, it’s not because you chose writing but because writing chose you. It’s when you’re mad with it, it’s when it’s stuffed in your ears, your nostrils, under your fingernails. It’s when there’s no hope but that.

The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything.

I became a journalist because one didn’t have to specialise.

Will minus intellect constitutes vulgarity.

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.

I don’t ascribe to myself any special competence in economic insight. I translate what I hear from highly intelligent people into political and philosophical propositions.

When trouble breaks out, our men and women in uniform, they don’t just sit around thinking about it or talking about it – they act. They put on that uniform. They leave their loved ones behind. They go out there. They give orders. They follow orders. They do whatever it takes to keep our country safe.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.

An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.

To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal.

There is something about building up a comradeship – that I still believe is the greatest of all feats – and sharing in the dangers with your company of peers. It’s the intense effort, the giving of everything you’ve got. It’s really a very pleasant sensation.

Deep down, I know I have this intuition or instinct that a lot of creative people have, that their demons are also what make them create.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would be an affront to your intelligence.

We’re just enthusiastic about what we do.

I have spent so much time and so much energy making other people’s children stars.

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.

How do you know what it’s like to be stupid if you’ve never been smart?

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.

Be smarter than other people, just don’t tell them so.

If you study the writings of the mystics, you will always find things in them that appear to be paradoxes, as in Zen, particularly.

If at first you don’t succeed… so much for skydiving.

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

Realists do not fear the results of their study.

On ‚Grey’s Anatomy‘ I wouldn’t care what I was playing – I would play a corpse, ‚cause I love it that much. It is deep true love, and it will never die.

I’ll always stay connected with Apple. I hope that throughout my life I’ll sort of have the thread of my life and the thread of Apple weave in and out of each other, like a tapestry. There may be a few years when I’m not there, but I’ll always come back.

I write books back to back, and I work very hard on them.

I’ve always believed that success for anyone is all about drive, dedication, and desire, but for me, it’s also been about confidence and faith.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.

This is certain, that a man that studieth revenge keeps his wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do well.

Instinct taught me 20 years ago to pace a song or a concert performance. That translates into pacing a story, pleasing a reading audience.

Ah! yes, I know: those who see me rarely trust my word: I must look too intelligent to keep it.

War is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise shall give him no peace.

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase… Rather, it’s displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

The intelligence of the creature known as a crowd, is the square root of the number of people in it.

If you are lucky enough to find something that you love, and you have a shot at being good at it, don’t stop, don’t put it down.

When the party gives me a responsibility, I must do it with complete dedication. God has given me the ability, which I utilise to its optimum.

If one of the arguments against eating meat is to do with cruelty and animal intelligence, then lab meat avoids that. There’s also the environmental argument for it.

If I were again beginning my studies, I would follow the advice of Plato and start with mathematics.

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

If I am a cup maker, I’m interested in making the best cup I possibly can. My effort goes into that cup, not what people think about it.

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

As a soccer player, I wanted an FA Cup winner’s medal. As an actor you want an Oscar. As a chef it’s three-Michelin’s stars, there’s no greater than that. So pushing yourself to the extreme creates a lot of pressure and a lot of excitement, and more importantly, it shows on the plate.

Commitment is an act, not a word.

I suppose Virgin is an unusual brand in that I suspect we’re the only ‚way of life‘ brand in the world. We’re one of maybe the top 30 best known brands in the world, yet if you look at the other 29, they all specialize in one area. Whether it’s Google, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, etc., they all generally specialize in one area.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.

Once you get on the playing field it’s not about whether you’re liked or not liked. All that matters is to play at a high level and do whatever it takes to help your team win. That’s what it’s about.

So many writers don’t like to write… I like to write, and sometimes I’m afraid I like it too much, because when I get into work, I don’t want to leave it. And as a result, I’ll go for days and days and days without leaving my house.