We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

Arafat’s departure has created an awesome opportunity.

That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well.

If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind.

I’ve never gone into business to make money. Every Virgin product and service has been made into a reality to make a positive difference in people’s lives. And by focusing on the happiness of our customers, we have been able to build a successful group of companies.

For me, education has never been simply a policy issue – it’s personal. Neither of my parents and hardly anyone in the neighborhood where I grew up went to college. But thanks to a lot of hard work and plenty of financial aid, I had the opportunity to attend some of the finest universities in this country.

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long as he is determined not to do it; and consequently so long as it is impossible to him that he should do it.

I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.

You get one life. I’m going to embrace mine.

I’m hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington, obviously. But I hope the ambitious realize that they are more likely to succeed with success as opposed to failure.

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.

I wanted to write when I was young, but people said it was impossible. Then my parents locked me in a mental institution – they said I was crazy and would never make a living from writing.

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.

Get place and wealth, if possible with grace; if not, by any means get wealth and place.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.

Next to excellence is the appreciation of it.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.

Obedience brings success; exact obedience brings miracles.

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds done!

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

It’s a common misconception that money is every entrepreneur’s metric for success. It’s not, and nor should it be.

We work to become, not to acquire.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

Would I swap what I have achieved as a cook if I could have been as successful as a footballer? Definitely.

Asking is the beginning of receiving. Make sure you don’t go to the ocean with a teaspoon. At least take a bucket so the kids won’t laugh at you.

If you want a love message to be heard, it has got to be sent out. To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it.

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed – there’s so little competition.

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

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.

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.

If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.

There will be days when I walk in an arena and people will cheer and then there might be days when I walk in an arena and people might boo, but it all sounds the same to me because it’s all just noise that lets me know that I’m relevant.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

Nothing is stopping me from doing what I love to do.

The most talented do not always end up as celebrities, and those with less talent often do. Upsets are written into our history and occur around us every day.

Victory belongs to the most persevering.

You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.

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.‘

Remember, the storm is a good opportunity for the pine and the cypress to show their strength and their stability.

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.

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

There are millions of Americans outside Washington who are tired of stale political arguments and are moving this country forward. They believe, and I believe, that here in America, our success should depend not on accident of birth, but the strength of our work ethic and the scope of our dreams.

Ambition is a dream with a V8 engine.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

Everybody is going to have their critics. It’s easy to get discouraged in life.

The doer alone learneth.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

I didn’t want to become a professor or get tenure or teach or anything. All I wanted to do was get a degree because Louis Leakey said I needed one, which was right, and once I succeeded I could get back to the field.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Lots of young players have triumphed at United, so why can’t it happen to me? I’m not worried I’m young – it’s an incentive to do the best I can.

Life’s a fight. It’s a good fight of faith.

It is not enough to conquer; one must learn to seduce.

Why go through life if you’re not going to challenge yourself?

Let a man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim: Attacking is the only secret. Dare and the world yields, or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and you will succeed.

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.

If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.