Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Success consecrates the most offensive crimes.

We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

All very successful commanders are prima donnas and must be so treated.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

How lucky Adam was. He knew when he said a good thing, nobody had said it before.

What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.

I think I could go away tomorrow. I’ve already accomplished something. It’s such a selfish business that sometimes I get sick of myself.

There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

Mastery passes often for egotism.

When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.

If you look at the history of Notre Dame, if you hire a coach who’s been successful at another college program, they’re going to be ultra successful at Notre Dame because the talent will always be there.

Real life is the life that’s in you, not your circumstances, like where you live or what job you have or who you’re in relationship with.

I’m on the autism spectrum. I don’t usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

I always try to do as much as I can do. I’m never a person that does not enough, because I’d regret not doing enough and think I probably could have done more. I probably go too far and have to reel myself back in, which works in some things, and other things it doesn’t work.

Becoming famous was never what I wanted to do. There’s a lot of things that come with fame – it’s what people in the limelight have to do.

I attribute my success to this – I never gave or took any excuse.

At some point, you grow out of being attracted to that flame that burns you over and over and over again.

People like to blame others. I think a person should just look at their own situation, look around them, find out what they wish to do, and seek and go and do that. And that’s it.

Play not with paradoxes. That caustic which you handle in order to scorch others may happen to sear your own fingers and make them dead to the quality of things.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Meditation is not following any system; it is not constant repetition and imitation. Meditation is not concentration.

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

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

If you are surrounded by your competition and you are outworking these people, outmaneuvering these people, it’s hard not to let your confidence take over. It just builds and builds and builds.

No one was ever great without some portion of divine inspiration.

I had noticed that many of these successful people, historical and contemporary, shared certain common traits. They had a way of thinking that was exceptionally fluid; they could adapt to almost any circumstance; when confronted with problems, they could look at them from novel perspectives and solve them.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I love music. I always will.

No man should escape our universities without knowing how little he knows.

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.

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

I would rather be able to appreciate things I can not have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.

Those who cannot work with their hearts achieve but a hollow, half-hearted success that breeds bitterness all around.

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

I talk to myself all the time. Just make sure you answer.

The best people renounce all for one goal, the eternal fame of mortals; but most people stuff themselves like cattle.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who think they are sinners and the sinners who think they are righteous.

It is important for you to know who you are and who you may become. It is more important than what you do, even as vital as your work is and will be.

Hide our ignorance as we will, an evening of wine soon reveals it.

People have so many hang-ups about how other people live their lives. People always want to keep you in a little box, or they need to label you and fix you in time and location.

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

If you live only in one culture for the first 20 years of your life, you become conditioned without knowing it.

Many people have an intense feeling about what they’re best at. Too often, they’re driven away from it by other people.

I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Unless the great God, who assisted him, shall be with me and aid me, I must fail; but if the same omniscient mind and almighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail – I shall succeed.

To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.

At Sarah Lawrence, I realized that everybody was already what they were going to be. The painters were painting, the writers writing, the dancers dancing. And nobody wore any makeup. The art was uppermost.

Your attitude towards failure determines your altitude after failure.

See, ‚A Time to Kill‘ was the one I got famous off of. Big ka-boom, over one weekend. After that, I did films that I really wanted to do.