What nature requires is obtainable, and within easy reach. It is for the superfluous we sweat.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

Applause waits on success.

Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.

Nature never breaks her own laws.

We’ve climbed the mighty mountain. I see the valley below, and it’s a valley of peace.

When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.

To vilify a great man is the readiest way in which a little man can himself attain greatness.

Man takes his law from the Earth; the Earth takes its law from Heaven; Heaven takes its law from the Tao. The law of the Tao is its being what it is.

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.

How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.

People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.

Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

All great achievements require time.

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

Truths and roses have thorns about them.

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when a tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature. Necessity is the theme and inventress of nature, her curb and her eternal law.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

I give the name of cosmic sense to the more or less confused affinity that binds us psychologically to the All which envelops us. The existence of this feeling is indubitable, and apparently as old as the beginning of thought… The cosmic sense must have been born as soon as man found himself facing the forest, the sea and the stars.

Men may change their climate, but they cannot change their nature. A man that goes out a fool cannot ride or sail himself into common sense.

Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them.

The difficulty with this conversation is that it’s very different from most of the ones I’ve had of late. Which, as I explained, have mostly been with trees.

Horses make a landscape look beautiful.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

Every noble work is at first impossible.

I’ve run the Boston Marathon 6 times before. I think the best aspects of the marathon are the beautiful changes of the scenery along the route and the warmth of the people’s support. I feel happier every time I enter this marathon.

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

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.

You want to know whether we’re better off? I’ve got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!

Virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Time destroys the speculation of men, but it confirms nature.

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

The few who do are the envy of the many who only watch.

Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.

Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

I have two Golden Boot awards at home. It would be nice to win another, but I wouldn’t mind it if I didn’t.

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies – it is the first law of nature.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

When you draw or paint a tree, you do not imitate the tree; you do not copy it exactly as it is, which would be mere photography. To be free to paint a tree or a flower or a sunset, you have to feel what it conveys to you: the significance, the meaning of it.

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

What you put into life is what you get out of it.

I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

It’s a great, great experience to finally get the reception that you know you rightfully deserve.

If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good.