Talent is a wonderful thing, but it won't carry a quitter.
Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.
If you knew how much work went into it, you wouldn’t call it genius.
Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.
If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been due more to patient attention, than to any other talent.
I never did anything worth doing by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.
Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success.
Everything comes to him who hustles while he waits.
How long should you try? Until.
Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.
Finding is reserved for those that search.
From the bodybuilding days on, I learned that everything is reps and mileage. The more miles you ski, the better a skier you become; the more reps you do, the better your body. I'm a big believer in hard work, grinding it out, and not stopping until it's done, so the challenge appealed to me.
I wasn't lucky, I deserved it.
The ultimate inspiration is the deadline.
You have to write 100 songs before you write the first good one.
Spend each day getting a little wiser than you were when you woke up. Discharge your duties faithfully and well. Step by step you get ahead, but not necessarily in fast spurts. But you build discipline by preparing for fast spurts. Slug it out one inch at a time, day by day. At the end of the day – if you live long enough – most people get what they deserve.
The safest way to try to get what you want is to try to deserve what you want. It’s such a simple idea. It’s the golden rule. You want to deliver to the world what you would buy if you were on the other end.
You want to be extra rigorous about making the best possible thing you can. Find everything that’s wrong with it and fix it. Seek negative feedback, particularly from friends.
Step by step, walk the thousand-mile road.
Great work requires great and persistent effort for a long time. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.