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.

Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.

I got to Africa. I got the opportunity to go and learn, not about any animal, but chimpanzees. I was living in my dream world, the forest in Gombe National Park in Tanzania. It was Tanganyika when I began.

You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

All men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.

It’s time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark.

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.

That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

The important thing is that your teammates have to know you’re pulling for them and you really want them to be successful.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

We’re constantly striving for success, fame and comfort when all we really need to be happy is someone or some thing to be enthusiastic about.

I’m trying to get to Mars before everyone else.

I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them.

Diligence is the mother of good luck.

Of course, ‚I Will Always Love You‘ is the biggest song so far in my career. I’m famous for several, but that one has been recorded by more people and made me more money, I think, than all of them. But that song did come from a true and deep place in my heart.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown.

Sometimes the greatest meals on vacations are the ones you find when Plan A falls through.

If a star or studio chief or any other great movie personages find themselves sitting among a lot of nobodies, they get frightened – as if somebody was trying to demote them.

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.

Never was anything great achieved without danger.

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

Happiness does not lie in happiness, but in the achievement of it.

Personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures.

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.

Man, unlike anything organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.

Of course humans like to explore, and we should. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s more than that. It’s essential for your children and your children’s children.

I think Clinton, after getting into office and into Washington, was shocked at being bludgeoned. So he spent time trying to be all things to all people – one way guaranteed not to be successful or respected in a lion’s den. You can’t just play around with all those big cats – you’ve got to take somebody on.

Check your ego at the door. The ego can be the great success inhibitor. It can kill opportunities, and it can kill success.

And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

Growth is the great separator between those who succeed and those who do not. When I see a person beginning to separate themselves from the pack, it’s almost always due to personal growth.

Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned.

Treat failure as a lesson on how not to approach achieving a goal, and then use that learning to improve your chances of success when you try again. Failure is only the end if you decide to stop.

Climbing to the top demands strength, whether it is to the top of Mount Everest or to the top of your career.

I don’t believe I’ll ever get credit for anything I do in foreign affairs, no matter how successful it is, because I didn’t go to Harvard.

It’s useful to go out of this world and see it from the perspective of another one.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them.

Successful people make money. It’s not that people who make money become successful, but that successful people attract money. They bring success to what they do.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

Pretension is a poor joke that you play on yourself. Snap out of it. Recognise your strengths, work on your weaknesses. Real achievement is liking what you see in the mirror every morning.

Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended.

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity successful men act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something. Soon it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.

I like the idea of working in different genres and transcending genres and hopefully finding success, and ultimately make movies people like.

I feel that I’ve done what I wanted to do, and that makes me feel fairly content.

If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.

Applause waits on success.

Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too.

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.

To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit.

America is another name for opportunity.