Napoleon Hill

My desire was not a hope. It was not a wish. It was a keen, pulsating desire, which transcended everything else. It was definite. I succeeded because I chose a definite goal, and placed all my energy, all my willpower and all my effort into achieving that goal.

There is nothing but one thing in this world I am determined to have. I will burn all bridges behind me, and stake my future on the ability to get what I want.

To win or perish.

No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. You must be able to stand alone. All power is associated with immovability. The mountain, the massive rock, the storm-tried oak, all speak to us of power because of their combined solitary grandeur and defiant fixity; the calm, the fearless, the thoughtful, and grave, let such seek the solitude of the forest, the desert, and the mountaintop when detached from other people.

People of power remain calm and unmoved even when all around them are swayed by some emotion or passion.
You cannot be fit to command and control unless you have succeeded in commanding and controlling yourself.

I sent my soul through the invisible,
Some letter of that afterlife to spell,
And by-and-by my soul returned to me,
And whispered, "I myself am heaven and hell"