When you talk about black entrepreneurship, you’re talking about addressing the foundation of what’s going on with our people when we don’t have any financial power. Our basic needs aren’t being met in a lot of cases, so there’s no way we’re going to be able to tap into our potential until we address those bottom-level base needs.

We are not what we are, nor do we treat or esteem each other for such, but for what we are capable of being.

I believe that every person is born with talent.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered – either by themselves or by others.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

I wasn’t very good in academics, but I could have been if I could have studied well. I was a smart kid.

Regardless of what our national credit rating is, people will always want a roof over their heads, food on their tables, fuel for their cars, and clothes on their backs.

Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they’ve got a second.

I want to challenge you today to get out of your comfort zone. You have so much incredible potential on the inside. God has put gifts and talents in you that you probably don’t know anything about.

I was never top of the class at school, but my classmates must have seen potential in me, because my nickname was ‚Einstein.‘

There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day.

Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed… Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with – a man is what he makes of himself.

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.

If you are against yourself, you will never reach your highest potential. And when you criticize yourself, you’re criticizing God.

God has placed no limits to the exercise of the intellect he has given us, on this side of the grave.

The solar system can support a trillion humans. And then we’d have a thousand Mozarts and a thousand Einsteins.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What’s a sundial in the shade?

We have the resources to build room for a trillion humans in this solar system, and when we have a trillion humans, we’ll have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts. It will be a way more interesting place to live.

Within us there is someone who knows everything, wills everything, does everything better than we ourselves.

Most people have the opportunity of a lifetime flash right in front of them, and they fail to see it. A year later, they find out about it, after everyone else got rich.

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.

Great talents are the most lovely and often the most dangerous fruits on the tree of humanity. They hang upon the most slender twigs that are easily snapped off.

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

Almost everybody is born a genius and buried an idiot.

We need to steer clear of this poverty of ambition, where people want to drive fancy cars and wear nice clothes and live in nice apartments but don’t want to work hard to accomplish these things. Everyone should try to realize their full potential.

The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation.

I’m certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes.

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.

Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

When we see the face of a child, we think of the future. We think of their dreams about what they might become, and what they might accomplish.

The peasant must always be helped technically, economically, morally and culturally. The guerrilla fighter will be a sort of guiding angel who has fallen into the zone, helping the poor always and bothering the rich as little as possible in the first phases of the war.

Genius is a potential that lives within you and every other human being. You have many moments of genius in your lifetime. These are the times when you have a uniquely brilliant idea and implement it even if only you are aware of how fantastic it is.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Girls we love for what they are; young men for what they promise to be.

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

Let the path be open to talent.

I have seen how leaders rule by intimidation. Leaders who demonize and dehumanize entire groups of people often do so because they have nothing else to offer. And I have seen how places that stifle the voices and dismiss the potential of their citizens are diminished: how they are less vital, less hopeful, less free.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

We believe that every single child has boundless promise, no matter who they are, where they come from, or how much money their parents have. We’ve got to remember that. We believe that each of these young people is a vital part of the great American story.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you’re fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking… is freedom.

There is no man living that can not do more than he thinks he can.

If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.

All of these young people have some kind of potential in them. And if we don’t invest in them as a nation, regardless of where they come from or what color they are, if we don’t invest in them, we lose.

Irrespective of whether you have talent or not, one has to work hard. Just being talented doesn’t mean anything; you can end up wasting it before you realize.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.

To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability.

Connectivity just can’t be a privilege for people in the richest countries. We believe that connecting everyone in the world is one of the great challenges of our generation, and that’s why we are happy to play whatever small part in that that we can.