Why should I be studying for a future that soon may not exist?

The only happiness a brave person ever troubles themselves in asking about, is happiness enough to get their work done.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

I didn’t live at school, I lived where I could and studied what I enjoyed studying. I took what I wanted from that education but was making my first record at the same time. I don’t know anyone from school. I was just leading a different life. I was really interested in writing and other things.

The schools ain’t what they used to be and never was.

I know that I always wanted things. I was always proud of my people, proud of my home, but I always wanted more. I think most people do.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Success has always been a great liar.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.

Dreams are the touchstones of our character.

People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.

Ironically, parenting is a shame and judgment minefield precisely because most of us are wading through uncertainty and self-doubt when it comes to raising our children.

Education commences at the mother’s knee, and every word spoken within hearsay of little children tends toward the formation of character.

I believe in this concept that you learn by teaching.

Men do less than they ought, unless they do all that they can.

Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you just put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude.

I think there are a number of things that you can do to encourage your kids‘ dreams, but I do believe in speaking by experience of having a lot of help along the way, stumbling in the past. We’ve all stumbled, and we certainly all deserve to get up and walk again.

When you play, play hard; when you work, don’t play at all.

No one can guarantee success in war, but only deserve it.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.

Whether you want to go into music, whether you want to be a lawyer, whether you want to be President of the United States, the bottom line for all of you is that you have got to get your education.

Everyone has the potential to become an encourager. You don’t have to be rich. You don’t have to be a genius. You don’t have to have it all together. All you have to do is care about people and initiate.

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.

People want you to fail.

If I wish to compose or write or pray or preach well, I must be angry. Then all the blood in my veins is stirred, and my understanding is sharpened.

Even though I’ve been putting out bodies of work for years, ‚Beauty Behind the Madness‘ felt like the beginning.

I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.

A man without a goal is like a ship without a rudder.

Since day one, since the first time I touched the pen, I wanted to be the best at what I do.

I want people to draw strength from me.

I can never say ‚why‘ about anything I do. I suppose I can say ‚how‘ and ‚when‘ and ‚what.‘ But ‚why‘ is impenetrable to me.

Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.

I want parents to teach that academic intelligence is essential, but so is financial intelligence.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don’t believe too much into inspiration, only I’m waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It’s a little too easy to say that.

Success is getting what you want. Happiness is liking what you get.

I don’t have all the answers.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.

Many times, we miss out on God’s best because we give up too soon. We don’t realize how close we are to victory.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepts blacks in the top ten percent of students, but at MIT this puts them in the bottom ten percent of the class.

Enthusiasm is the mother of effort, and without it nothing great was ever achieved.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.

The woman that deliberates is lost.

Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, ‚Don’t try.‘ That fits the writing, too. I don’t try; I just type.

Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

A man’s worth is no greater than his ambitions.

I hope that people around the world will be as inspired as I am to step up and to speak out on behalf of girls around the world who struggle to go to school.

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.