Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.

I think writing really helps you heal yourself. I think if you write long enough, you will be a healthy person. That is, if you write what you need to write, as opposed to what will make money, or what will make fame.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

Even the most seemingly unpleasant situations – if you become aligned with it, something good will emerge from that.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

We must exercise ourselves in the things which bring happiness, since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it.

Whenever a youth is ascertained to possess talents meriting an education which his parents cannot afford, he should be carried forward at the public expense.

Forget the past.

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Don’t grow accustomed to living with less, doing less, and being less to the point that you eventually sit back and accept it.

No driver is perfect.

You have to be someone.

If you get something right, you really feel it, right in your chest, on stage. I think it’s an incomparable experience.

If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.

It is better to do one’s own duty, however defective it may be, than to follow the duty of another, however well one may perform it. He who does his duty as his own nature reveals it, never sins.

No one gets away with anything, ever, so take responsibility for your own life.

Desperation is a necessary ingredient to learning anything, or creating anything. Period. If you ain’t desperate at some point, you ain’t interesting.

I knew I was a winner back in the late sixties. I knew I was destined for great things. People will say that kind of thinking is totally immodest. I agree. Modesty is not a word that applies to me in any way – I hope it never will.

Working hard is very important. You’re not going to get anywhere without working extremely hard.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

I put Catholic guilt to work pretty good for a rich rock star.

Innovation has nothing to do with how many R & D dollars you have. When Apple came up with the Mac, IBM was spending at least 100 times more on R & D. It’s not about money. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it.

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.

The higher we are placed, the more humbly we should walk.

I’d sooner be called a successful crook than a destitute monarch.

Martyrdom: The only way a man can become famous without ability.

A man’s character is his fate.

I calculate that I took 20,000 punches, but I earned millions and kept a lot of it. I may talk slow, but my mind is OK.

I am an over-achiever, and I want to be known for the good things in my life.

I just figured out that if I gave my all into this game – if I put everything into the fight business – then I would eventually run the fight business.

The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dream; and how you handle disappointment along the way.

Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.

People don’t usually compliment your character.

I’m proud to be part of the Dr. Pepper Scholarship Giveaway. It’s a great program that gives me the chance to brighten the day for some lucky college students with free tuition.

Don’t give in to excuses that can keep you from really living the best life God has for you.

Stupidly it should not be. It should be also nice. One must get along with that. Is however not necessary.

You’ll never rise any higher than the way you see yourself.

You’ve got to invest in the world, you’ve got to read, you’ve got to go to art galleries, you’ve got to find out the names of plants. You’ve got to start to love the world and know about the whole genius of the human race. We’re amazing people.

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

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

As much as it might look like, to someone else, that I’m successful, I never feel like I’m anywhere. The further I go, I still feel equally further from my eventual goal. Because as I grow, I get more goals. I’m never content.

The only thing is, people have to develop courage. It is most important of all the virtues. Because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtues consistently.

The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.

Life is made of ever so many partings welded together.

Jealousy… is a mental cancer.

No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.

From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

My biggest criticism is how can people be so easily satisfied? Even people with talent.

Happiness doesn’t come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.