Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.

I keep working because I learn something new all the time.

Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.

God hangs the greatest weights upon the smallest wires.

I’ve got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

I’m a can-do girl.

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.

It is one of the beautiful compensations in this life that no one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

I am the center of attention in my job every single day; the thought of a wedding to me is exhausting. Why would I put myself through that?

If you are a small company taking on a big company, you need to have a sense of humor.

It is more fitting for a man to laugh at life than to lament over it.

A life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will is sure to be short.

We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

You just can’t beat the person who never gives up.

This industry has been really good to me. It’s been a great life. I’m not through yet. I’m ready when you are, Mr. DeMille.

When you go on your Twitter or look down your Timeline and it’s all great positivity – I love that. But at the same time, it can really divert you from what your purpose is or what you’re trying to do. And I’ve seen artists get caught up in that.

I have goals.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

If a man had more than one life, I think a little hanging would not hurt this one; but after he is once dead, we cannot bring him back, no matter how sorry we may be; so the boy shall be pardoned.

Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.

My work as an artist is completely separate from my work as a philanthropist.

Life is a matter of really tough choices.

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.

Yes, we’ve still got more work to do. More work to do for every American still in need of a good job or a raise, paid leave or a decent retirement; for every child who needs a sturdier ladder out of poverty or a world-class education; for everyone who has not yet felt the progress of these past seven and a half years.

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

If there is a transmigration of souls then I am not yet on the bottom rung. My life is a hesitation before birth.

You can’t imagine parlor ballads drifting out of high-rise multi-towered buildings. That kind of music existed in a more timeless state of life.

If you’re not going to be rewarded for your virtues, and instead you’re going to be punished for them, then what’s your motivation to continue?

Live the life you’ve dreamed.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

Getting out of bed is like the foundation of the discipline, and I think it carries over into everything else.

Men were not intended to work with the accuracy of tools, to be precise and perfect in all their actions.

Music is either sacred or secular. The sacred agrees with its dignity, and here has its greatest effect on life, an effect that remains the same through all ages and epochs. Secular music should be cheerful throughout.

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

Life is an ordeal, albeit an exciting one, but I wouldn’t trade it for the good old days of poverty and obscurity.

The very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.

Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

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.

Don’t wait around for other people to be happy for you. Any happiness you get you’ve got to make yourself.

There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.

You may think it was a very little thing, and in these days it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar in less than a day; that by honest work, I had earned a dollar. I was a more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time.

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

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

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

The last act is bloody, however pleasant all the rest of the play is: a little earth is thrown at last upon our head, and that is the end forever.

I grew up in a rural area called Vega Baja and I’m the first of so many talented people in this area to make it out. I take great pride to represent where I come from and I am able to show my fans, and everyone who listens and watches me, that anything is possible.