What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Find a beautiful piece of art. If you fall in love with Van Gogh or Matisse or John Oliver Killens, or if you fall love with the music of Coltrane, the music of Aretha Franklin, or the music of Chopin – find some beautiful art and admire it, and realize that that was created by human beings just like you, no more human, no less.

By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.

The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God’s children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil.

The life of an uneducated man is as useless as the tail of a dog which neither covers its rear end, nor protects it from the bites of insects.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

Successful people will always tell you you can do something. It’s the people who have never accomplished anything who will always discourage you from trying to achieve excellent things.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

Life doesn’t require that we be the best, only that we try our best.

Every parting gives a foretaste of death, every reunion a hint of the resurrection.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Cardi B put a lot of work in.

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.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.

I want to be like Bruce Springsteen or something, making songs that are relevant.

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

Untutored courage is useless in the face of educated bullets.

Thought is the parent of the deed.

I’m always afraid of failing. I have to quiet that fear if I’m going to get up in the morning.

You simply have to put one foot in front of the other and keep going. Put blinders on and plow right ahead.

I’ve never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people’s lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.

Sometimes God will deliver you from the fire, and other times God will make you fireproof.

If you can build a business up big enough, it’s respectable.

When I am working on a book or a story, I write every morning as soon after first light as possible. There is no one to disturb you, and it is cool or cold, and you come to your work and warm as you write.

Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

If I’m inspired to make a certain kind of song, I’m going to make that kind of song, no matter if it’s what they know me as or think I am.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.

Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forego an advantage.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

Life is so short. I would rather sing one song than interpret the thousand.

We should all start to live before we get too old.

Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.

It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Every great person is always being helped by everybody; for their gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

I know I want to always do the best I can.

There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear.

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.

To what greater inspiration and counsel can we turn than to the imperishable truth to be found in this treasure house, the Bible?

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 world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

I believe in Coach Louis Wong. He is so much more than just a football coach.

What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.

I want people to follow their dreams, yes… but I’m not interested in telling young black kids how to be rappers… I want to show them that there’s so many other paths you can take, besides a rapper or basketball player.

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

If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose.

I always knew from that moment, from the time I found myself at home in that little segregated library in the South, all the way up until I walked up the steps of the New York City library, I always felt, in any town, if I can get to a library, I’ll be OK. It really helped me as a child, and that never left me.