But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.

Laughter is America’s most important export.

No one is ever successful at everything that they do.

Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.

If you look at anyone who has achieved great success and wealth, people like Warren Buffett, Oprah Winfrey, or Lance Armstrong, they have all focused intensely in order to win.

The ladder of success is never crowded at the top.

To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.

To have a comeback, you have to have a setback.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

You want to know whether we’re better off? I’ve got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!

If you want to thrive in today’s economy, you must challenge the status quo and get the financial education necessary to succeed.

What we want to be is something completely new. There is no physical analog for what Amazon.com is becoming.

Take the course opposite to custom and you will almost always do well.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

We will all fail in life, but nobody has to be a failure. Failing at a thing doesn’t make you a failure. You are only a failure when you quit trying.

No one has ever drowned in sweat.

A successful lawsuit is the one worn by a policeman.

It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.

In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.

It’s a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can’t stop playing the game the way you’ve always played it.

I think my first thought on reaching the summit- of course, I was very, very pleased to be there, naturally – but my first thought was one of a little bit of surprise. I was a little bit surprised that here I was, Ed Hillary, on top of Mt. Everest. After all, this is the ambition of most mountaineers.

The making of the far-famed New York Central Park was opposed by even good men, with misguided pluck, perseverance, and ingenuity, but straight right won its way, and now that park is appreciated. So we confidently believe it will be with our great national parks and forest reservations.

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

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

With Kansas, I had a four-year deal. The initial two months were real tough. I had to adjust a lot. Then, things started looking up.

I can’t keep somebody from being a star, and I can’t make somebody a star, and nobody can.

I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.

With Virgin, I’ve just loved creating things. And as a private company, I can get away with moving Virgin from records to airlines to train companies to space companies to whatever, without ever having to worry about analysts knocking the value of my stock.

I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country’s cause.

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

There is little success where there is little laughter.

You gotta keep trying to find your niche and trying to fit into whatever slot that’s left for you or to make one of your own.

The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

I’m an entrepreneur. I’m a young mogul. I’m blessed.

When I was younger, I felt pressure to become someone else once I became successful.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

The first step on the way to victory is to recognize the enemy.

Whatever has happened in my quest for innovation has been part of my quest for immaculate reality.

If I’d just tried for them dinky singles I could’ve batted around .600.

If you want to shine like a sun, first burn like a sun.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.

My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good.

Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

Marines don’t know how to spell the word ‚defeat‘.

In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.

It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

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

I am in touch with a company that hopes to replicate my voice. However, they are not replicating my original voice – if they did that, I would sound like a man in his 20s, which would be very strange! They are actually trying to replicate the synthesizer that sits on my wheelchair.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.

Seventy percent of success in life is showing up.

Well, I wouldn’t say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

If my films don’t show a profit, I know I’m doing something right.

The men who learn endurance, are they who call the whole world, brother.

The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today.