Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.

All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation, in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else.

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the change to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.

Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.

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

It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.

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

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.

How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on. It is never of any use to oneself.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

Learning never exhausts the mind.

Good leadership consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.

Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanness.

Rule No.1: Never lose money. Rule No.2: Never forget rule No.1.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

Gentleness doesn’t get work done unless you happen to be a hen laying eggs.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

Remember that failure is an event, not a person.

Confidence… thrives on honesty, on honhonor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

Discussion is an exchange of knowledge, an argument an exchange of ignorance.

Maintain your car, home, and other personal belongings you rely on.

Luck is not chance, it’s toil; Fortune’s expensive smile is earned.

Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

It is very difficult for people to come in contact with their own emotions and their own sensibilities.

If there is illness in your home, do you not need a doctor from outside? If your home catches on fire, do you not need fire fighters from outside? God has sent me to America in the role of a doctor, in the role of a fire fighter.

I like ice hockey. No one is ever going to ask me to write about that as a metaphor for life.

The concept of absurdity is something I'm attracted to.

It would be naive to think that the problems plaguing mankind today can be solved with means and methods which were applied or seemed to work in the past.

Whenever I have even a spare second, I'm in the kitchen whipping up a batch of cookies. I make a mean batch of chocolate chippers.

What I've always thought I would do is make a bunch of movies and then stop to teach for awhile. And then just teach at film schools - you know, teach children.

I think that children's books should be censored not for references to sex but for references to diseases. I mean, who didn't think after reading 'Madeline' that they were going to get appendicitis?

I did my homework and didn't go out much, and had a very highly developed kitsch fantasy life where I dreamed of being a dancing girl.