It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.

Real excellence does not come cheaply. A certain price must be paid in terms of practice, patience, and persistence—natural ability notwithstanding.

How excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly’.

Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.

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

I am not remotely interested in just being good.

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life.

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.

Our life does not develop as a result of chance, but as a result of causes.

Man lives in a world of surmise, of mystery, of uncertainties.

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.

Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.

Rest not! Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.

I remember my youth and the feeling that I could last forever, outlast the sea, the earth and all men.

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you won't do anything with it.

I think it’s important to realize that you can miss something, but not want it back.

Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.