When we look back on all the perils through which we have passed and at the mighty foes that we have laid low and all the dark and deadly designs that we have frustrated, why should we fear for our future? We have come safely through the worst.

When a man fell into his anecdotage it was a sign for him to retire from the world.

We didn’t crumble after 9/11. We didn’t falter after the Boston Marathon. But we’re America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.

I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.

If it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

If man makes himself a worm he must not complain when he is trodden on.

Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong.

Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

All great achievements require time.

Good luck has its storms.

Life is hard. After all, it kills you.

I second-guess and overthink and rethink every single thing that I do.

We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.

Start wide, expand further, and never look back.

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were – to the very last minute – a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

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

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

There’s people that tried to celebrate when I lost that got nothing to do with it. That’s not the sign of a champion.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.

I’m just a kid that defied the odds. I’m just a kid that ignored the doubt. I’m just a kid from a little place in Dublin, Ireland, that went all the way, and I’m going to continue to go all the way.

You have to motivate yourself with challenges. That’s how you know you’re still alive.

Once we have a war there is only one thing to do. It must be won. For defeat brings worse things than any that can ever happen in war.

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

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.

When things are going bad, there’s going to be some good that’s going to come from it.

Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

When I was writing ‚Kitchen Confidential,‘ I was in my 40s, I had never paid rent on time, I was 10 years behind on my taxes, I had never owned my own furniture or a car.

My reputation grows with every failure.

A lot of people, because of my contempt for the false consolations of religion, think of me as a symbolic public opponent of that in extremis. And sometimes that makes me feel a bit alarmed, to be the repository of other people’s hope.

They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write unlimited ‚first chapters‘. I have indeed written many.

Intelligent people should learn from their experiences. With people on the street, the bad experience has beaten them.

Genius always gives its best at first; prudence, at last.

Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.

Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.

As a shame researcher, I know that the very best thing to do in the midst of a shame attack is totally counterintuitive: Practice courage and reach out!

I’m always trying. Between every book, I think, ‚Well now, it’s time to get down to the serious stuff.‘

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

It’s a real strength for me that I’ve never minded the training process. It’s something I enjoy. I really like being in the gym or, certainly, on the field.

The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.

Yesterday is but today’s memory, and tomorrow is today’s dream.

The farmer has to be an optimist or he wouldn’t still be a farmer.

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.

Basically, when you get to my age, you’ll really measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you.

The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to let you know.

It is a common saying, and in everybody’s mouth, that life is but a sojourn.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

When you think of the exponential speed and scale of expansion of social media or a service, you have to believe that it is equally possible to rapidly transform the lives of those who have long stood on the margins of hope.

Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Waste brings woe, and sorrow hates despair.

You’ll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.