You will never fulfill your destiny doing work you despise.

By ancestry, I was born to rule.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.

What the devil is the point of surviving, going on living, when it’s a drag? But you see, that’s what people do.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

I firmly believe that unless one has tasted the bitter pill of failure, one cannot aspire enough for success.

If I waited for perfection… I would never write a word.

Eradications are special. Zero is a magic number. You either do what it takes to get to zero and you’re glad you did it; or you get close, give up and it goes back to where it was before, in which case you wasted all that credibility, activity, money that could have been applied to other things.

Alas! You complain that your soul is out of tune. Then ask the Master to tune the heart-strings.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day.

The presence of passion within you is the greatest gift you can receive. Treat it as a miracle.

The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.

Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

Aside from singing, I’m also a dancer. I’ve been dancing since I was 8.

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.

We should not give up and we should not allow the problem to defeat us.

There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Everything rises and falls on leadership.

What is a fear of living? It’s being preeminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what you came here to do, out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take full responsibility for yourself – for the time you take up and the space you occupy. If you don’t know what you’re here to do, then just do some good.

Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.

I’m sure the feeling of fear, as long as you can take advantage of it and not be rendered useless by it, can make you extend yourself beyond what you would regard as your capacity. If you’re afraid, the blood seems to flow freely through the veins, and you really do feel a sense of stimulation.

I know I’m stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself. We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us.

A calling is you feel – you look out and see the need – maybe it’s the need for the poor, to help poor people. Maybe it’s the need to get involved in the race problem, as Martin Luther King was – felt called.

What one has to do usually can be done.

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

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others‘ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

Acting is just a way of making a living, the family is life.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

There is one thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, and that is discipline. Because your dreams and your goals are not there waking up for you in the morning.

When I started Virgin from a basement in west London, there was no great plan or strategy. I didn’t set out to build a business empire… For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

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

Even if you have nothing to write, write and say so.

If your inner life is not producing what you would like on the outside, don’t be discouraged… just be willing to change.

It has always been my belief that a man should do his best, regardless of how much he receives for his services, or the number of people he may be serving or the class of people served.

I think music is something that can, and should, be used to get you into different things because eventually what goes up must come down – we’re not going to be the number one group in the world forever – so you have to have something else to fall back on.

O, you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you, and I would have ended my life – it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me.

You can’t do it unless you can imagine it.

Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.

I love my job, but it’s more than that: I need it.

I get up every morning and say, ‚Father, give me strength today, not strength so I can lift 500 pounds, but give me strength, Lord, so when I speak, my words might motivate, might inspire somebody, Lord, when they see me, let them see you. When they hear me, Lord, let them hear you. In your holy name I pray.‘

Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.

I do not believe a man can ever leave his business. He ought to think of it by day and dream of it by night.

Man’s only true happiness is to live in hope of something to be won by him. Reverence something to be worshipped by him, and love something to be cherished by him, forever.

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

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

Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

Success has always been a great liar.

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

We do not wish to enter Heaven until our work is done, for it would make us uneasy if there were one single soul left to be saved by our means.

People need motivation to do anything. I don’t think human beings learn anything without desperation.

Sometimes, if you begin to sing in a halfhearted mood, you can sing yourself up the ladder. Singing will often make the heart rise.

I love almost everything about my work except conferences. I am too shy in front of an audience. But I love signings and having eye contact with a reader who already knows my soul.

You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.