Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you'll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it you're gonna be rewarded.

There's no present. There's only the immediate future and the recent past.

A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.

Beset by a difficult problem? Now is your chance to shine. Pick yourself up, get to work and get triumphantly through it.

What we have to learn to do we learn by doing.

Be brave. Take risks. Nothing can substitute experience.

You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try.

A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker.

Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.

'Tis one thing to be tempted, another thing to fall.

The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body.

Worry not that no one knows of you, seek to be worth knowing.

Necessity is the mother of taking chances.

Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you ready or not to put this plan into action.

Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth... not going all the way and not starting.

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

I've never met a genius. A genius to me is someone who does well at something he hates. Anybody can do well at something he loves - it's just a question of finding the subject.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us, if we create the capacity to receive it.

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short.

The horizon leans forward offering you space to place new steps of change.

Iron rusts from disuse, water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation, rather than upon mere survival.

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour whatever he does, whoever he is.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

It concerns us to know the purposes we seek in life, for then like archers aiming at a definite mark we shall be more likely to attain what we want.

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds.

Those that know do. Those that understand teach.

The more things are forbidden the more popular they become.

It's the job that's never started takes longest to finish.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on and fear not the thorns or the sharp stones on life's path.

Our characters are a result of our conduct.

Don't wait for the last judgment - it takes place every day.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.

If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes. What matters most is getting off. You cannot make progress without making decisions.

Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.

Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.

The expectations of life depend upon diligence, the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.

Never confuse motion with action.

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.

Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

I never expect to lose. Even when I'm the underdog I still prepare a victory speech.

People become attached to their burdens, sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

Every difficulty slurred over will be a ghost to disturb your repose later on.

A well-spent day brings happy sleep.

He that waits upon fortune is never sure of a dinner.

Leisure is the time for doing something useful. This leisure the diligent person will obtain, the lazy one never.

I believe the most important single thing beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

To succeed, jump as quickly at opportunities as you do at conclusions.

We are all selfish, and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.

Tough times never last but tough people do.

There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing down the other is pulling up.

Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.

Americans never quit.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

Everything nourishes what is strong already.

It is well to be up before daybreak for such habits contribute to health, wealth and wisdom.

A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble right at his door.

To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it.

Some critics will write 'Maya Angelou is a natural writer' - which is right after being a natural heart surgeon.

America is the land of the second chance - and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead should lead to a better life.

We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it's a continuing choice.

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

First have a definite clear practical ideal, a goal an objective. Second have the necessary means to achieve your ends, wisdom, money, materials and methods. Third adjust all your means to that end.

Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Look at the means which a man employs, consider his motives, observe his pleasures. A man simply cannot conceal himself!

He does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place then stand firm.

If you can't feed a hundred people then feed just one.

Sometimes if you want to see a change for the better, you have to take things into your own hands.

Unwearied ceaseless effort is the price that must be paid for turning faith into a rich infallible experience.

Life begins on the other side of despair.

Whatever you do may seem insignificant to you, but it is most important that you do it.

Motivation is simple. You eliminate those who are not motivated.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

Attitude is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than what people do or say. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

I love the man that can smile in trouble that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink but he whose heart is firm and whose conscience approves his conduct will pursue his principles unto death.

There are people who, the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.

To reach a port we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.

Adventure is worthwhile.

Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced every day.

It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read.

All my life, whenever it comes time to make a decision, I make it and forget about it.

How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience would have achieved success.

Sometimes things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.

Beings are owners of their action, heirs of their action.

I say that habit is but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men's nature in the end.

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

In counsel it is good to see dangers, but in execution not to see them unless they be very great.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

It is not the answer you look for that makes you strong. It's the ways that you take that define who you are and what you can do.

The moment there is suspicion about a person's motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problem.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.

The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done whether you like it or not.

I'm a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star, then I grab a handful of clouds.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

A round man cannot be expected to fit in a square hole right away. He must have time to modify his shape.

To do anything truly worth doing I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.

If you start by promising what you don't even have yet, you'll lose your desire to work towards getting it.

If you shoot for the stars and hit the moon it's OK. But you've got to shoot for something. A lot of people don't even shoot.

Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart

If we plant a flower or a shrub and water it daily it will grow so tall that in time we shall need a spade and a hoe to uproot it. It is just so I think when we commit a fault, however small, each day and do not cure ourselves of it.

It is better to play than do nothing.

One of the greatest and simplest tools for learning more and growing is doing more.

The future starts today, not tomorrow.

A person's fears are lighter when the danger is at hand.

Advance and never halt for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path for they draw only corrupt blood.

If I am walking with two other men, each of them I will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.

Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you're in a fight.

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.

You can't be consistently fair, consistently generous, consistently just, or consistently merciful. You can be anything erratically, but to be that thing time after time after time you have to have courage.

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds.

The superior man makes the difficulty to be overcome his first interest, success comes only later.

A wicked person swayed by evil motives and evil actions is described as a demon.

Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence and love and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic, it takes sweat determination and hard work.

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.

It is much easier to suppress a first desire than to satisfy those that follow.

It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.

Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, be worthy of being known.

The spirit is the true self. The spirit the will to win and the will to excel are the things that endure.

Never lose a holy curiosity.

He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.

Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is lightning that does the work.

You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

The world breaks everyone and afterward some are strong at the broken places.

Man who stand on hill with mouth open will wait long time for roast duck to drop in.

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

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.

Patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.

To conquer oneself is a greater task than conquering others.

Not to alter one's faults is to be faulty indeed.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. You become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions brave by performing brave actions.

If it's your job to eat a frog it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs it's best to eat the biggest one first.

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied it is the most potent instrument of action.

Providence has its appointed hour for everything. We cannot command results, we can only strive.

If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business.

Effective action is always unjust.

Don't bother people for help without first trying to solve the problem yourself.

Excellence is not an act but a habit

Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.

If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too.

But behavior in the human being is sometimes a defense a way of concealing motives and thoughts, as language can be a way of hiding your thoughts and preventing communication.

Only you can control your future.

And will you succeed? Yes you will indeed! (98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!

Most people with low self-esteem have earned it.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given, than to explore the power they have to change it. 

Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.

It isn’t the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it’s the pebble in your shoe.

I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly be beat.

You see, most people think Great God will come from the sky, Take away everything and make everybody feel high, But if you know what life is worth You would look for yours on earth.

Truth is the light, so you never give up the fight.

The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?

Road of life is rocky and you may stumble too, so while you talk about me, someone else is judging you.

I do the very best I know how - the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.

Chi Wen Tzu always thought three times before taking action. Twice would have been quite enough.

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

Do not blame the food because you have no appetite.

Overstraining is the enemy of accomplishment. Calm strength that arises from a deep and inexhaustible source is what brings success.

Life itself is a strange mixture. We have to take it as it is, try to understand it, and then to better it.

My eyes have seen much, but they are not weary. My ears have heard much, but they thirst for more.

Life is a journey. How we travel is really up to us.  We can just flow with the tide or follow our own dreams.

Be fully awake if you want to dream

Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into someone you are not.

There are neither winners nor losers; there are only stages that must be gone through. When the human heart understands this, it is free and able to accept difficult times without being deceived by moments of glory.

God is love, generosity and forgiveness; If we believe in this, we will never allow our weaknesses to paralyze us.

All battles in life serve to teach us something, even the battles we lose.

Those who really seek the path to Enlightenment dictate terms to their mind. Then they proceed with strong determination.

Get up, stand up! Stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up! Don't give up the fight!

The butterfly counts not months, but moments, and has time enough.

I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build it anyway.

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough.

I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so fuckin' heroic.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.

If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.

Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.

Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance?

To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

Each of us is merely one human being, merely an experiment, a way station. But each of us should be on the way toward perfection, should be striving to reach the center, not the periphery.

Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness only in his actions, in his life.

Nothing will work unless you do.

I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.

Well begun is half done.

You've got to go out on a limb sometimes, because that's where the fruit is.

Life is never fair and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels or any other way you can manage it.

He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.

What I hear I forget. What I see I remember. What I do I understand.

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

Bring your desires down to your present means. Increase them only when your increased means permit.

By trying we can easily endure adversity. Another man's I mean.

I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier.

I mean as an athlete, as a competitor, you have to have that belief in yourself.

If a man take no thought about what is distant he will find sorrow near at hand.

Better the man that conquer a thousand-thousand men is the one who conquer one himself.

Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon come out from behind the clouds! Shine!

Things won are done, joy's soul lies in the doing.

So go ahead. Fall down. The world looks different from the ground.

The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is not to frighten them, but to challenge them.

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

I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.

I never had a policy, I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

Do not consider painful what is good for you.

He that rises late must trot all day.

When you're finished changing, you're finished.

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves.

Some day I shall be President.

A man may conquer a million men in battle, but one who conquers himself is indeed the greatest of conquerors.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading, or do things worth writing.

Thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.

All the adversity I've had in my life all my troubles and obstacles have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word and thought throughout our lifetime.

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one, it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.

Do not ever say that the desire to "do good" by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know but we must try to have and use it.

Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

Employ thy time well if thou meanest to gain leisure.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.

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

Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour.

Hold on with a bulldog grip and chew and choke as much as possible.

If you want to reach a goal you must "see the reaching" in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.

The fact that you are willing to say "I do not understand and it is fine " is the greatest understanding you could exhibit.

We would rather look for easier things to do.

The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress and grows brave by reflection.

I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.

At one point he decided enough was enough.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects 'This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know' the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motives.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them and then you destroy yourself.

The courage of very ordinary people is all that stands between us and the dark.

I hope the millions of people I've touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and persevere with a positive attitude.

Old minds are like old horses, you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

See what a man does. Mark his motives. Examine in which things he rests. How can a man conceal his character? How can a man conceal his character?

Money was never a big motivation for me except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.

Oh I would love to be a motivational speaker. I have pulled myself out of a million potholes and I can see the potholes ahead of me. That doesn't mean that I could always do that so perfectly for my own life. I totally fall in potholes.

The attempt, and not the deed, confounds us.

For a war to be just three conditions are necessary - public authority just cause right motive.

Instead of focusing on the external characteristics of others you focus on their inner feelings particularly as it is reflected in their behavior and expressions. You gauge the thoughts in another's mind and the feelings in their hearts by carefully watching what they say and do. When you have this kind of vision you become concerned primarily with the deeper feelings and motivations of the other person

A man should first direct himself in the way he should go. Only then should he instruct others.

Every diminution of the public burdens arising from taxation gives to individual enterprise increased power and furnishes to all the members of our happy confederacy new motives for patriotic affection and support.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing it is always from the noblest motives.

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.

Jan is completely different from other years. I have known him for seven eight or nine years and he clearly has a new motivation and a new perspective. I think he will win.

If someone is going down the wrong road he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation we must not merely talk, we must act big.

The activity of happiness must occupy an entire lifetime, for one swallow does not a summer make.

Strive not to be a success but rather to be of value.

My share of the work may be limited, but the fact that it is work makes it precious.

I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be one.

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives or else to be a monster.

To withdraw myself from myself has ever been my sole my entire my sincere motive in scribbling at all.

If you must have motivation think of your paycheck on Friday.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

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

With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.

A moral being is one who is capable of reflecting on his past actions and their motives - of approving of some and disapproving of others.

Actions are visible though motives are secret.

My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.

After I had my son Max, I knew I wanted to get involved in causes that help children.