A Companion to the book Learn, Improve, Master.
Over 250 quotes on learning, practice, motivation, success, grit, and overcoming challenges from masters of the past and present. Featuring words of wisdom from Leonardo da Vinci, Ernest Hemingway, Gary Kasparov, Simone Biles, Stephen King, Michael Phelps, Martha Graham, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams, Jiro Ono, Usain Bolt, and many more.
In researching my book Learn, Improve, Master, I came across great quotes on knowledge, learning, overcoming challenges, and mastery. I added many of them to the book, but had to leave out many others. This is the entire collection organized by theme.
Note: It has become increasingly challenging to verify quotes. The internet is plagued by misattributions, and many unsourced or disputed quotes have even made their way into respectable publications. I tried to verify the ones I added to this compilation, but some might be inaccurate. I decided to still add the ones that were difficult to trace because of the value of their message—even if the source may not be accurate.
INTRODUCTION
Learning proceeds until death, and only then does it stop...Its purpose cannot be given up for even a moment. To pursue it is to be human, to give it up to be a beast.
—Xun Kuang, Chinese philosopher
Just as nothing great is created instantly, the same goes for the perfecting of our talents and aptitudes. We are always learning, always growing.
—Epictetus, Stoic philosopher
If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters.
—Epictetus
A man, though wise, should never be ashamed of learning more, and must unbend his mind.
—Sophocles, Greek playwright (Antigone)
Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.
―Aristotle, Greek Philosopher
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
—Chinese Proverb
LEARNING & KNOWLEDGE
Youths are not to be instructed with a view to their amusement, for learning is no amusement, but is accompanied with pain.
—Aristotle
Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher
Our knowledge is the amassed thought and experience of innumerable minds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is no knowledge that is not power.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Learn as if you were not reaching your goal and as though you were scared of missing it.
—Confucius, Chinese philosopher
To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge.
—Confucius
To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.
—Confucius
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
—Alvin Toffler, American writer and futurist
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
—John Locke, English philosopher
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
—Richard Steele, Irish writer co-founder of The Spectator Magazine
As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.
—Harrington Emerson, pioneer efficiency engineer and management theorist
The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.
—Sir Anthony Jay, English writer
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
—Abigail Adams, former first lady of the United States
What is the point of having countless books and libraries, whose titles could hardly be read through in a lifetime? The learner is not taught but burdened by the sheer volume, and it’s better to plant the seeds of a few authors than to be scattered about by many.
—Seneca, Stoic philosopher
Nature has given us the seeds of knowledge, not knowledge itself.
—Seneca
What we do not understand we do not possess.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and philosopher
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
—Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance artist and polymath
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.
—Leonardo da Vinci
Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.
—Japanese proverb
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
—Isaac Newton, English mathematician and scientist
Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.
—Albert Einstein, Nobel Laureate in physics
Our delight in any particular study, art, or science rises and improves in proportion to the application which we bestow upon it. Thus, what was at first an exercise becomes at length an entertainment.
—Joseph Addison, English writer
Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to virtue, truly and essentially raises one man above another.
—Joseph Addison
If a man empties his purse into his head no man can take it from him. An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.
—Benjamin Franklin, polymath and founding father of the United States
In the case of everything perfect we are accustomed to abstain from asking how it became: We rejoice in the present fact as though it came out of the ground by magic.
—Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher
Everything finished and complete is regarded with admiration, everything still becoming is undervalued. But no one can see in the work of the artist how it has become; that is its advantage, for wherever one can see the act of becoming one grows somewhat cool. The finished and perfect art of representation repulses all thinking as to how it has become; it tyrannizes as present completeness and perfection.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
There exists in the world a single path along which no one can go except you: whither does it lead? Do not ask, go along it.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius: for only if we think of him as being very remote from us, as a miraculum, does he not aggrieve us.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
TALENT & GRIT
Talent—In as highly developed a humanity as ours now is everyone acquires from nature access to many talents. Everyone possesses inborn talent, but few possess the degree of inborn and acquired toughness, endurance and energy to actually become a talent.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Everyone holds his fortune in his own hands, like a sculptor the raw material he will fashion into a figure. But it’s the same with that type of artistic activity as with all others: We are merely born with the capability to do it. The skill to mold the material into what we want must be learned and attentively cultivated.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Many young painters would never have taken their pencils in hand, if early enough they could have felt, known, and understood, what really produced a master like Raphael.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.
—Michelangelo Buonarroti, Renaissance artist and polymath
Do not talk about giftedness, inborn talents! One can name great men of all kinds who were very little gifted.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
I work harder than anyone who has ever lived.
—Michelangelo Buonarroti
If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible—for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.
—Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher
Even people who aren’t geniuses can outthink the rest of mankind if they develop certain thinking habits.
—Charles Darwin, English naturalist and biologist
Careful attention to one thing often proves superior to genius and art.
—Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention than to any other talent.
—Isaac Newton
Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this: when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.
—Alexander Hamilton, founding father of the United States
What I have achieved by industry and practice, anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability can also achieve.
—Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer
It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art has become easy to me. I assure you, dear friend, no one has given so much care to the study of composition as I. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.
—Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time
You can’t [know if you have any talent]. Sometimes you can go on writing for years before it shows. If a man’s got it in him, it will come out sometime. The only thing I can advise you is to keep on writing, but it’s a damned tough racket. The only reason I make any money at it is I’m a sort of literary pirate. Out of every ten stories I write, only one is any good and I throw the other nine away.
—Ernest Hemingway
Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but most of all, endurance.
—James Baldwin, American writer
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My only strength lies in my tenacity.
—Louis Pasteur, regarded as the father of microbiology
I wasn’t naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for.
—Wayne Gretzky, hockey star
The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.
—Wayne Gretzky
My work ethic is the single most important factor in all of my accomplishments.
—David Goggins, retired Navy SEAL and ultra-endurance athlete
I believe that there is a champion in all of us. No matter the circumstances, each and every human being should be encouraged to achieve excellence in life. You should live your own dreams.
—Frank Shamrock, mixed martial arts multiple champion
The truth is that I didn’t start as a winner. When I was a kid, I was just another reject. I started at the bottom. I think all winners do.
—Georges St-Pierre, UFC Champion
There’s no talent here, this is hard work. This is an obsession. Talent does not exist, we are all equals as human beings. You could be anyone if you put in the time. You will reach the top, and that’s that. I am not talented. I am obsessed.
—Conor McGregor, UFC Champion
I have no idols. I admire work, dedication, and competence.
—Ayrton Senna, multiple time formula one champion
The separation of talent and skill is one of the greatest misunderstood concepts for people who are trying to excel, who have dreams, who want to do things. Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of being on your craft.
—Will Smith, multiple award-winning actor and musician
I’ve never really viewed myself as particularly talented. Where I excel is ridiculous, sickening work ethic.
—Will Smith
As an instructor, you must be able to distinguish between poor performance caused by lack of ability or aptitude on the part of the student and poor performance caused by lack of effort. You should treat the first with patience and the latter with firmness.
—Bruce Lee, martial artist, actor, and creator of Jeet Kune Do
I don’t believe there is such a thing as a ‘born’ soccer player. Perhaps you are born with certain skills and talents, but quite frankly it seems impossible to me that one is actually born to be an ace soccer player.
—Pelé, soccer star
A lot of people are so used to just seeing the outcome of work. They never see the side of the work you go through to produce the outcome.
—Michael Jackson, pop star
There is no reason not to follow your dream. Deliberate practice can open the door to a world of possibilities that you may have been convinced were out of reach. Open that door.
—K. Anders Ericsson, psychologist and peak performance expert
I never dreamed about success. I worked for it.
—Estée Lauder, businesswoman founder of the Estée Lauder empire
No activity can be successfully pursued by an individual who is preoccupied, since the mind when distracted absorbs nothing deeply, but rejects everything which is, so to speak, crammed into it.
—Seneca
Memory is the treasury and guardian of all things.
—Cicero
A man’s real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.
—Alexander Smith, Scottish poet
It is notorious that the memory strengthens as you lay burdens upon it, and becomes trustworthy as you trust it.
—Thomas De Quincey, English writer
MEMORY & PRACTICE
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
—Leonardo da Vinci
To practice with vigor is to be near to magnanimity.
—Confucius
What all string players have in common is that if we don’t play for a while, we actually start from ground zero.
—Yo-Yo Ma, renowned cellist
I enjoy practicing more and more . . . as a child, I practiced because I had to practice and you didn’t want to mess up. But that’s not a good thing. You want to please your teacher, you want to please your parents, you want to please your peers. And now I practice because I’ve experienced so much love that you practice out of loving a phrase, loving motivic change, loving a structure or harmony change or the way a sound can get to something.
—Yo-Yo Ma
Practicing is about quality, not quantity. Some days I practice for hours; other days it will be just a few minutes.
—Yo-Yo Ma
The Way is in training.
—Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman, philosopher and strategist
If I don’t practice one day, I know it; two days, the critics know it; three days, the public knows it.
—Jascha Heifetz, nicknamed “The Perfect Violinist”
Practice with your fingers and you need all day. Practice with your mind and you will do as much in 1½ hours.
—Leopold Auer, renowned violinist and composer
The right kind of practice is not a matter of hours. Practice should represent the utmost concentration of the brain. It is better to play with concentration for two hours than to practice eight without. I should say that four hours would be a good maximum practice time—I never ask more of my pupils—and that during each minute of the time the brain be as active as the fingers.
—Leopold Auer
When you practice you want to have results.
—Itzhak Perlman, famous violinist
Don’t count the days, make the days count.
—Muhammad Ali, boxing heavyweight champion
When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
—Ed Macauley, basketball star
Make a point of practicing on your weak side until you don’t have one anymore.
—Laird Hamilton, big wave surfing legend
When I left college to go to the pros, I thought I was the hardest working guy, and seeing that first hand [NBA guys training] was something that has changed my whole approach to the game. This whole time I thought I was pushing myself to the max . . . but I wasn’t at the right level, and I needed to see it.
—Stephen Curry, basketball star
I probably spend 70 percent of my time by myself, working on my game, just trying to fine-tune every single piece of my game.
—Kevin Durant, basketball player
Nothing can be accomplished without solitude.
—Pablo Picasso, renowned artist
The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude.
—Nikola Tesla, inventor, engineer, and futurist
Learn the fundamentals of the game and stick to them.
—Jack Nicklaus, golf star
Golf is easier than many people believe. Many golfers’ chief problem is simply that they won’t persevere with fundamentals.
—Jack Nicklaus
I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes the shape of achievement, a sense of one’s being, a satisfaction of spirit.
—Martha Graham, famous dancer and choreographer
Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.
—Sun Tzu, Chinese general, strategist, and philosopher
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
—Harrington Emerson
Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.
—Confucius
We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.
—Archilochus, Greek poet
PREPARATION & PERFORMANCE
A man prepared has half fought the battle.
—Miguel de Cervantes, renowned writer (Don Quixote)
Chance favors only the prepared mind.
—Louis Pasteur
Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.
—Angela Duckworth, psychologist and science writer
It’s not every four years, it’s every day.
—Motto for the United States Olympic Committee
The work is behind the scenes, competition is the easy part, behind the scenes is where the work is done. Everything is done to get to that one race that you need to run.
—Usain Bolt, regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time
The willingness to win is nothing without the willingness to prepare.
—Juma Ikangaa, marathon runner
The price of greatness is responsibility.
—Winston Churchill
Dreams are free. Goals have a cost. While you can daydream for free, goals don’t come without a price. Time, effort, sacrifice, and sweat. How will you pay for your goals?
—Usain Bolt
There’s time when you are running and you just want to stop, you just wanna give up, like, to hell with this I just wanna go home. There’s days when you get up and you know that you have a training today, you know it’s going to be intense and you are like, “oh god I don’t wanna go today,” but you gotta go, and it’s so hard and a lot of people don’t know.
—Usain Bolt
I hated every minute of training, but I said, “Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.”
—Muhammad Ali
You don’t get better on the days when you feel like going. You get better on the days when you don’t want to go, but you go anyway. If you can overcome the negative energy coming from your tired body or unmotivated mind, you will grow and become better. It won’t be the best workout you have, you won’t accomplish as much as what you usually do when you actually feel good, but that doesn’t matter. Growth is a long term game, and the crappy days are more important.
—Georges St-Pierre
Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t.
—Jerry Rice, football star
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice.
—Pelé
It took me 17 years and 114 days to become an overnight success. Starting early and staying late. Training day after day after day, year after year.
—Leo Messi, soccer star
I make my training so hard that it’s impossible that the fight will be harder than my training.
—Georges St-Pierre
I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect halfhearted results. That’s why I approached practices the same way I approached games. You can’t turn it on and off like a faucet. I couldn’t dog it during practice, and then, when I needed that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there.
—Michael Jordan, basketball star
Success is won by those who believe in winning and then preparing for that moment. Many want to win, but how many prepare? That is the big difference.
—Herb Brooks, 1980’s American Olympic Hockey team coach
Training to become champion is the toughest thing. The fight itself is just a test.
—Georges St-Pierre
If you work hard in training, the fight is easy.
—Manny Pacquiao, multiple division boxing world champion
In some ways, the hardest part of that is the discipline. It’s the part that’s easiest to skip. Training is harder than fighting. . . Training, a lot of the time is just uncomfortable. But discipline is all about doing the things that are uncomfortable. It’s about doing the things you don’t want to do.
—Frank Shamrock
In Jeet Kune Do, it’s not how much you have learned, but how much you have absorbed from what you have learned. It is not how much fixed knowledge you can accumulate, but what you can apply livingly that counts.
—Bruce Lee
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.
—Leonardo da Vinci
You’ve got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.
—Charlie Parker, renowned musician
There is nothing within a marble block that cannot be realized by the superior artist provided his hand obeys the intellect.
—Michelangelo Buonarroti
Pay attention to what’s in front of you—the principle, the task, or what’s being portrayed.
—Marcus Aurelius
Don’t think about winning the SEC Championship. Don’t think about the National Championship. Think about what you needed to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment. That’s the process: Let’s think about what we can do today, the task at hand.
—Nick Saban, famous college football coach
The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.
—Martha Graham
Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.
—Charlie Parker
Obsessing about winning is a loser’s game: the most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.
—Phil Jackson, legendary basketball coach
I know that being fixated on winning (or more likely, not losing) is counterproductive, especially when it causes you to lose control of your emotions. What’s more, obsessing about winning is a loser’s game: the most we can hope for is to create the best possible conditions for success, then let go of the outcome.
—Phil Jackson
You cannot do anything for the last play. In other words, someone who is always looking in his rearview mirror will never make the most of the current moment.
—Mike Krzyzewski, college basketball coach
When I dive constant ballast, I don’t think about breaking a record. I can’t ever think about the whole dive. It’s too overwhelming. I have to chunk it down, create tiny, clear goals. I go through kick cycles. The Voice keeps count. I want to pay attention through one cycle, then the next, then the next. Keep the count, that’s my only goal. If I keep the count, I can stay in flow for the whole dive.
—Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, free-diving world champion
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French aviator, writer, and author of The Little Prince (quote from Wind, Sand and Stars)
We cannot escape fear. We can only transform it into a companion that accompanies us on all our exciting adventures.
—Susan Jeffers, American psychologist
I feel like you should always be a little bit nervous because if you lose those nerves, then something’s wrong.
—Simone Biles, gymnastics Olympic gold medalist
Once I step into those big competitions, such as the Olympics, my inner dialogue is more like, you can do this, have confidence, and think back to everything you’ve done in training is for this moment now.
—Simone Biles
I am lucky that whatever fear I have inside me, my desire to win is always stronger.
—Serena Williams, tennis star
When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. Then, gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all that I can permit myself to contemplate.
—John Steinbeck, Nobel prize-winning author of The Grapes of Wrath
Anxiety only exists during anticipation. It dissipates once you start to perform.
—Christina Aguilera, pop star
Previously I always thought it was just tactical and technique, but every match has become almost mental and physical—I try to push myself to move well. I try to push myself not to get upset and stay positive, and that’s what my biggest improvement is over all those years. Under pressure I can see things very clear.
—Roger Federer, tennis star
If anyone can refute me—show me I am making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective—I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance.
—Marcus Aurelius
Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
—Plato, Greek philosopher
It doesn’t matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
—Confucius
Nobody becomes Tom Wolfe overnight, not even Tom Wolfe.
—William Zinsser, writer, author of On Writing Well
IMPROVING & FEEDBACK
One of the lessons I learned in all those years practicing karate is that progress only comes in small incremental portions. Nobody becomes great overnight.
—Georges St-Pierre
You don’t expect to be at the top of the mountain the day you start climbing.
—Ron Dennis, McLaren CEO
People thought it was asinine for me to change my swing after I won the Masters by twelve shots. Why would you want to change that? Well, I thought I could become better.
—Tiger Woods, golf star
I continuously go further and further learning about my own limitations, my body limitation, psychological limitations. It’s a way of life for me.
—Ayrton Senna
To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.
—Winston Churchill
Criticism does not disturb me, for I am my own severest critic. Always in my playing I strive to surpass myself, and it is this constant struggle that makes music fascinating to me.
—Jascha Heifetz
In racing there are always things you can learn, every single day. There is always space for improvement, and I think that applies to everything in life.
—Lewis Hamilton, multiple time formula one champion
He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise.
—Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher
There is something about seeing myself improve that motivates and excites me. For me, the joy of athletics has never resided in winning. Don’t get me wrong, I love every one of those high school championships, gold medals and world records. But I derive as much happiness from the process as from the results. I don’t mind losing as long as I see improvement or I feel I’ve done as well as I possibly could. If I lose I just go back to the track and work some more. That’s why those losses when I was just starting out didn’t bother me so much. I knew I’d given my very best.
—Jackie Joyner-Kersee, American track and field Olympian
I discovered something about myself early on too. I could be motivated not just by winning. By improving my strokes. Hitting split times. Setting records. Doing my best times. There were any number of things I could do to get better. Winning never gets old, but there was a way to win that showed I was getting better and could get better still.
—Michael Phelps
I went to Bob [his coach] and asked him for video of all my swims from Athens. I took those videos and watched them over and over. When I watched one of the events, I understood clearly that I had gone out too slowly and that the third turn had left me at an impossible disadvantage. It was abundantly clear what I needed to fix.
—Michael Phelps, most decorated Olympian of all time
When the work stands equal to one’s judgment of it, it is a bad sign for the judgment. When the work surpasses one’s judgment that is worse, as happens to someone who is astonished at having produced such good work, and when the judgment disdains the work this is a perfect sign. If someone with such an attitude is young, without doubt, he will become an excellent painter, but will produce few works, although these will be of such a quality that men will stop in admiration to contemplate their perfection.
—Leonardo da Vinci
We clearly know that errors are recognizable more in the works of others than in our own, and often, while finding fault with the minor errors of others, you will ignore your own great ones.
—Leonardo da Vinci
There is nothing that deceives us more than our own judgment when used to give an opinion on our own works.
—Leonardo da Vinci
You’ll find reading your book over after a six-week layoff to be a strange, often exhilarating experience. It’s yours, you’ll recognize it as yours . . . and yet it will also be like reading the work of someone else, a soul-twin, perhaps. This is the way it should be, the reason you waited. It’s always easier to kill someone else’s darlings than it is to kill your own.
—Stephen King
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.
—George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics
Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.
—Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid revolutionary and former president of South Africa
You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing that we call “failure” is not the falling down, but the staying down.
—Mary Pickford
CHALLENGES & RESILIENCE
What is to give light must endure burning.
—Viktor Frankl
Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.
—Thomas Edison, renowned inventor and businessman
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
—Thomas Edison
If you don’t make mistakes, you are not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake.
—Frank Wilczek, Nobel laureate in physics
It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all—in which case, you fail by default.
—J.K. Rowling, best-selling author
The only road to good shows is bad ones. Just go start having a bad time and if you don’t give up, you will get better.
—Louis C.K., comedian
I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they can recover when they fall.
—Serena Williams
Nothing any good isn’t hard.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, American writer
Unless your work gives you trouble, it is no good.
—Pablo Picasso
Man cannot remake himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor.
—Alexis Carrel, French Nobel laureate in medicine
I can accept failure, everyone fails at something, but I can’t accept not trying.
—Michael Jordan
I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
—Michael Jordan
I took some steps backward to go forward, to make some giant leaps forward.
—Tiger Woods
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
—Samuel Beckett, Irish writer
You lose the game. We are all humans. You cannot take it aside. So you still think about it. You cannot make this game torture you forever. So you just eventually have to think about other games. But it’s there. . . I just knew that I have to live with that and that the best way to put it aside is just to prepare for the next game, ideally to win the next game. And then you can just move on.
—Garry Kasparov
Man errs as long as he strives.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust
You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.
—Colette, French author
Mostly I lost games because I made terrible mistakes. I was very angry with myself, not with my opponents, with myself. It’s my own fault. I always look at my losses, my defeats, as my personal fault. And all I had to do was just work more, just go back to the table, to the chess set and get better.
—Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster and world chess champion
I try to put myself in a mental state of, “How do I learn from that defeat? How do I learn from that loss?”
—LeBron James, basketball star
There are no limits. There are only plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.
—Bruce Lee
For me it is always a huge learning experience when I lose. When I win, I still learn, but I always have been able to learn a lot more from a loss. If I lose, the first thing I would examine is why I lost. And usually it is something obvious.
—Frank Shamrock
It’s how you come back from adversity that shows how good you are.
—Georges St-Pierre
Do not fear mistakes, there are none.
—Miles Davis, renowned jazz musician
Sometimes you are going to be so frustrated you’ll hate the guitar, but all of this is just a part of learning. If you stick with it you’re going to be rewarded.
—Jimi Hendrix
A champion is defined by the adversity he overcomes.
—Anderson Silva, UFC Champion
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.
—Marcus Aurelius
A strong and well-constituted man digests his experiences (deeds and misdeeds all included) just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
(Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker.) What does not kill me, makes me stronger.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Defeat is one thing; disgrace is another.
—Winston Churchill
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realize that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.
—Winston Churchill
(Hat man sein warum? des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem wie?) He who has a why in life can tolerate almost any how.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.
—Wayne Gretzky
It is right to accept challenges. This is how we progress to the next level of intellectual, physical, or moral development.
—Epictetus, A Manual for Life
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
—Japanese proverb
Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.
—Aldous Huxley, English writer and philosopher
Really, you should always discuss the defeats because you can learn much more from failure than from success.
—Niki Lauda, multiple time formula one world champion
What people tend to forget is the journey that I had getting to Formula One. There were plenty of years where I had to learn about losing and having bad races.
—Lewis Hamilton
If things are going bad take a big breath and take it one step at a time.
—Serena Williams
Nothing good ever comes from worrying or sitting there feeling sorry for yourself...keep positive and keep pushing on and things will turn good.
—Conor McGregor
It’s a tough pill to swallow but we can either run from our adversity or run to our adversity, take it head-on and conquer it.
—Conor McGregor
If thou art a man, admire those who attempt great things, even though they fail.
—Seneca
With a defeat, when you lose, you get up, you make it better, you try again. That’s what I do in life, when I get down, when I get sick, I don’t want to just stop. I keep going and I try to do more. Everyone always says never give up but you really have to take that to heart and really do never definitely give up. Keep trying.
—Serena Williams
Real champions fight through adversity.
—Conor McGregor
Don’t fear failure. Not failure, but low aim is the crime. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail.
—Bruce Lee
What are the necessary steps in learning any art? The process of learning an art can be divided conveniently into two parts: one, the mastery of the theory; the other, the mastery of the practice. If I want to learn the art of medicine, I must first know the facts about the human body, and about various diseases. When I have all this theoretical knowledge, I am by no means competent in the art of medicine. I shall become a master in this art only after a great deal of practice, until eventually the results of my theoretical knowledge and the results of my practice are blended into one—my intuition, the essence of the mastery of any art. But, aside from learning the theory and practice, there is a third factor necessary to becoming a master in any art—the mastery of the art must be a matter of ultimate concern; there must be nothing else in the world more important than the art. This holds true for music, for medicine, for carpentry—and for love.
—Erich Fromm, social psychologist
MASTERY & MINDSET
Just because people are doing extraordinary things doesn’t mean they’re not ordinary people.
—Laird Hamilton, surf legend
First tell yourself what kind of person you want to be, then do what you have to do. For in nearly every pursuit we see this to be the case. Those in athletic pursuit first choose the sport they want, and then do that work.
—Epictetus
We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.
—Theodore Roosevelt, former president of the United States
People who love what they do wear themselves down doing it, they even forget to wash or eat. Do you have less respect for your own nature than the engraver does for engraving, the dancer for the dance, the miser for money or the social climber for status? When they’re really possessed by what they do, they’d rather stop eating and sleeping than give up practicing their arts.
—Marcus Aurelius
It is a cursed evil to any man to become as absorbed in any subject as I am in mine.
—Charles Darwin
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.
—Albert Einstein
Once you decide on your occupation, you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably.
—Jiro Ono, considered one of the greatest sushi chefs in the world
I always thought I wanted to play professionally, and I always knew that to do that I’d have to make a lot of sacrifices. I made sacrifices by leaving Argentina, leaving my family to start a new life. I changed my friends, my people. Everything. But everything I did, I did for football, to achieve my dream.
—Leo Messi
If you are going to compete against me, you better be willing to give up your life, because I’ve given up mine.
—Tom Brady, football star
I’ve dedicated all my life to being the best and to being the best track and field person I can possibly be. Trying to be a legend, trying to be the greatest, trying to be unstoppable, trying to be undefeated. I’ve dedicated my life to this.
—Usain Bolt
There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a man’s life to know them, the little that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave.
—Ernest Hemingway
I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.
—Martha Graham
There is a kind of excellence in me and you—born in us—and it cannot live in shame.
—Sophocles, Electra
I won’t quit skating until I am physically unable.
—Tony Hawk, retired professional skateboarder
I’m a martial artist, and I don’t train because I have a fight; I train because it’s my lifestyle, and I’ll train every day if I’m not hurt.
—Georges St-Pierre
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’
—Martin Luther King, Jr., minister, activist, and civil rights movement leader
Dancing appears glamorous, easy, delightful. But the path to paradise of the achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration, there are daily small deaths.
—Martha Graham
I think a lot of people see you run and then they say, “oh, looks so easy, looks effortless.” But before it gets to that point it’s hard work, it’s day in and day out sacrifice, day in and day out just dying.
—Usain Bolt
To me, the only sin is mediocrity.
—Martha Graham
I hope you will disdain mediocrity and aim to excel in whatever you do.
—Vera Rubin, astronomer
[After losing to Yohan Blake on the 2012 Olympic trials in Jamaica] For the next month, the work that I put in to make sure I could silence all these doubters was just unbelievable. I vomited daily because I was pushing myself to the ultimate level.
—Usain Bolt
The body that isn’t used to maybe the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth rep with a certain weight. So that makes the body grow, then. Going through this pain barrier. Experiencing pain in your muscles and aching…and just go on and go on. And these last two or three or four repetitions that’s where the muscles then grow. And that divides one from a champion and one from not being a champion. If you can go through this pain barrier, you may get to be a champion. If you can’t go through, forget it. And that’s what people lack, is having the guts. The guts to go in and just say, I’ll go through and I don’t care what happens. It aches, and if I fall down I have no fear of fainting in a gym…because I know it could happen. I threw up many times while I was working out. But it doesn’t matter, because it’s all worth it.
—Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mr. Olympia, movie star, and former Governor of California
Are you going to wait until after you win your gold medal to have a good attitude? No. You’re going to do it beforehand. You have to have the right mental attitude and go from there. You’re going to be an Olympic champion in attitude long before there’s a gold medal around your neck.
—Bob Bowman (Michael Phelps’ coach) to Michael Phelps
You gotta be the champion before you wear the belt.
—Mike Tyson, heavyweight boxing champion
As a player I watched each and every game. . . I studied it all.
—Wayne Gretzky
I keep the white-belt mentality that I can learn from anyone, anywhere, anytime.
—Georges St-Pierre
Mastering music is more than learning technical skills.
—Yo-Yo Ma
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.
—Martha Graham
Don’t be afraid to imitate another writer. Imitation is part of the creative process for anyone learning an art or a craft. Find the best writers in the fields that interest you and read their work aloud. Get their voice and their taste into your ear—their attitude toward language. Don’t worry that by imitating them you’ll lose your own voice and your own identity. Soon enough you will shed those skins and become who you are supposed to become.
—Stephen King, bestselling author
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
—Leonardo da Vinci
Even after working at sushi restaurants for 50 years, I don’t believe I’ve mastered sushi yet. Every day, while working, I am constantly thinking there is much more to do.
—Jiro Ono
I believe in the ability of focusing strongly on something, then you are able to extract even more out of it. It’s been like this all my life, and it’s been only a question of improving it, and learning more and more and there is almost no end. As you go through you just keep finding more and more. It’s very interesting, it’s fascinating.
—Ayrton Senna
There’s no top. There are always further heights to reach.
—Jascha Heifetz
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
—Ernest Hemingway
Even today, I dare not say that I have reached a state of achievement. I’m still learning, for learning is boundless.
—Bruce Lee
Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others.
—Pablo Picasso
You win a race, the next race is a question mark. Are you still the best or not? That’s what is funny. But that’s what is interesting. And that’s what is challenging. You have to prove yourself every time.
—Michael Schumacher, multiple time formula one world champion
Better to make a mistake than to repeat oneself.
—Michelangelo Buonarroti
For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.
—Ernest Hemingway during his Nobel prize speech
I love to write. But it has never gotten any easier to do and you can’t expect it to if you keep trying for something better than you can do.
—Ernest Hemingway
It’s hard to be as hungry as a person who has never won a championship. I’ve been going through this for years, but now that I’ve done most of that stuff [secure a future, buy nice things, help his family], it makes me just want to give up. It worries me at this point in my career now, at a big stage, that I still have issues motivating myself.
—Usain Bolt (preparing for the Rio Olympics, he still went on to win multiple gold medals)
MOTIVATION & ACTION
To find your passion, you have to look inward. If you look outward, all you’ll see is what other people are doing. You’re not other people.
—Laird Hamilton
The moment money becomes your motivation, you are immediately not as good as someone who is stimulated by passion and internal will.
—Sebastian Vettel, multiple time formula one world champion
Energy and persistence conquer all things.
—Benjamin Franklin
If you are very stubborn, you can make it.
—Jimi Hendrix, renowned guitarist
Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.
—Winston Churchill
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.
—Walt Disney, founder of the Disney empire
Believe that you can and you’re halfway there.
—Theodore Roosevelt
Each indecision brings its own delays and days are lost lamenting over lost days. What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power, and genius in it.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
—Elinor Smith, pioneering American aviator
Balance your thoughts with action. If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
—Bruce Lee
Things don’t just happen, they are made to happen.
—John F. Kennedy
Step by step walk the thousand-mile road.
—Miyamoto Musashi
You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.
—Wayne Gretzky
I’d rather have a life of “oh wells” than “what ifs.”
—Michael Jordan
He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.
—Muhammad Ali
Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.
—Suzy Kassem, writer
Quitting: easy. Daring to triumph: hard.
—Laird Hamilton
Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.
—Laird Hamilton
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.
—Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher
What one has, one ought to use; and whatever he does he should do with all his might.
—Cicero
The goal is not always meant to be reached, but to serve as a mark for our aim.
—Joseph Joubert, French essayist
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
—Seneca
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt