Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

Sometimes, getting up in the morning and brushing your teeth is the hardest part of the day – it all just hurts.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

People will try to bring you down, but you gotta go up.

Speakers who talk about what life has taught them never fail to keep the attention of their listeners.

If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.

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

Winning is the most important. Everything is consequence of that.

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

Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

We all have a tendency to avoid our weaknesses. When we do that, we never progress or get any better.

Well I think a lot of times we’re putting things off and I’m going to do it later. I’m going to break this bad habit or I’m going to pursue this dream or I’m going to treat my spouse better.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

You must capture and keep the heart of the original and supremely able man before his brain can do its best.

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

As long as I’m learning something, I figure I’m OK – it’s a decent day.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

I don’t like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I’d like to see somebody who’s going in the office. In fact, I’d like to not see them because that way you’d be sure that they’d be working.

The man who has no imagination has no wings.

The problem with being an employee or self-employed is you pay the highest taxes.

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

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.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.

I always feel like it’s two key ingredients when it comes to following your dreams, making something happen that the average person deems difficult. If you truly believe it, that’s step one. Step two, is, you know, the hard work that goes along with it.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

My experience has been that work is almost the best way to pull oneself out of the depths.

An honest man’s the noblest work of God.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Only those who want everything done for them are bored.

The truth is, anyone can start projects. The world is full of just-started projects that looked great at the time but were never completed.

Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic.

You have to be smart. The easy days are over.

I just have an enthusiasm for life.

I don’t think the ebbs and flows – get in great shape and then get out of shape and then see if you can get back into shape – is a good thing. So I prefer to keep my arm always ready to go.

Only by contending with challenges that seem to be beyond your strength to handle at the moment you can grow more surely toward the stars.

The truest wisdom is a resolute determination.

An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.

If you want to achieve something, you build the basis for it.

If I lost my job, I’d get a job at McDonald’s.

I’d have stopped writing years ago if it were for the money.

A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.

I don’t think about the end game. I’ve got lots to occupy my mind. It’s the rage that keeps me going.

Why should anybody be interested in some old man who was a failure?

If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.

When you’re around me and really see that all I do is live and breathe for my work, it’s not strange, it’s just Gaga.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.

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.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

The boy who is going to make a great man must not make up his mind merely to overcome a thousand obstacles, but to win in spite of a thousand repulses and defeats.