Whenever things go a bit sour in a job I’m doing, I always tell myself, ‚You can do better than this.‘

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting.

My life is a struggle.

Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward; they may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.

You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

I love having my hands in the dirt. It is never a science and always an art. There are no rules. And if it comes down to me versus that weed I’m trying to pull out of the ground that doesn’t want to come out? I know I’ll win.

Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock.

Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.

It is easier to stay out than get out.

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

If you will do what God tells you to do, there’s no person on Earth and no devil in Hell that can keep you from having what God wants you to have.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

I grew up cursing a lot.

Purity of personal life is the one indispensable condition for building up a sound education.

At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.

If something’s important enough, you should try. Even if – the probable outcome is failure.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.

Don’t let schooling interfere with your education.

Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.

A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body – the wishbone.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

You make yourself broad. You make yourself appealing. ‚Hey, y’all, I’m cool with everybody.‘ That’s my message.

I never let schooling interfere with my education.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature.

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.

I’m always happy to blow up any misconceptions that people have about stage school cos everyone thinks it’s really nasty there but it’s not.

You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself.

So many people are looking at what’s wrong, and I try to encourage them to look at what’s right in their life. A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

I will keep America moving forward, always forward, for a better America, for an endless enduring dream and a thousand Points of Light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.

If anything is good for pounding humility into you permanently, it’s the restaurant business.

I’m one of the luckiest people on earth.

Even if my songs are quite sad or quite dark, I don’t want my songs to make people sad. It’s very important for me that all my songs have some kind of hope or light.

You can’t have it all all at once. Over my lifespan, I think I have had it all, but in given periods in time, things were rough. And if you have a caring life partner, you help the other person when that person needs it.

There is little success where there is little laughter.

All ballplayers should quit when it starts to feel as if all the baselines run uphill.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

One word from the Lord is like a piece of gold to a believer, who is like a jeweler, shaping and hammering out the promise for a number of weeks.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that the setbacks and grieves which we endure help us in our marching onward.

My rich dad believed we should all learn to take care of ourselves.

Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.

Everybody likes a compliment.

Never give in – never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

You might not always get what you want, but you always get what you expect.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Put it this way: If I asked, ‚How’s business?‘ and you say, ‚Boomin‘ or ‚Amazing,‘ I already know the answer.

When his life was ruined, his family killed, his farm destroyed, Job knelt down on the ground and yelled up to the heavens, ‚Why god? Why me?‘ and the thundering voice of God answered, ‚There’s just something about you that pisses me off.‘

Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.

We are not animals. We are not a product of what has happened to us in our past. We have the power of choice.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.