Booker T. Washington

Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.

It takes no compromise to give people their rights … it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give them freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.

Be grateful for what you have and stop complaining – it bores everybody else, does you no good, and doesn’t solve any problems.

My first professional job was to sell heavy-duty waterless cookware.

It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.

I urge people to learn from the mistakes of others.

I am a visceral person by nature. I act on instinct, quickly, without pondering possible disaster and without indulging in deep introspection.

The real risk is doing nothing.

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.

To learn and not to do is really not to learn. To know and not to do is really not to know.

Most good ideas sparkle in simplicity, so much so that everyone wonders why no one ever did that before.

Procastination is not about not doing is about not doing and feeling crappy.

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.

An obstacle is often a stepping stone.