Life doesn’t get any easier, but you get better at it.

Life’s a journey, not a destination.

Life’s too short to not take chances.

Don’t let your fears hold you back from what you want to achieve.

Opportunities are all around you, you just have to see them.

Life’s too short to not follow your passion.

True success comes when you help others find their way.

You can’t make everyone happy, but you can make yourself proud.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

It’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in your years.

I’m not afraid of tomorrow, for I have seen yesterday and I love today.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.

Patience is a virtue, but persistence is even more important.

There’s no substitute for hard work.

I don’t really feel like I can be good doing gigs. I can be good before, and I can be good after.

I can’t accept not trying.

I’m playing the best basketball of my life, I’m in the best shape physically, and I’m looking forward to the best film roles of my career.

The road to success is never a straight line.

Take risks. If you win, you’ll be happy. If you lose, you’ll be wise.

Time is the most valuable resource we have.

Anger and hatred are the twin sisters of ignorance.

Every setback is an opportunity to learn and improve.

Dream big, and work hard to make it happen.

I was never afraid of hard work, it was the lack of it that scared me.

I’m a cultural orphan. I love my work, but it’s never been enough to define me.

The only way to get rid of my fears is to make films about them.

The key to success is to take care of the little things.

I don’t believe in luck. I believe in preparation.

Being happy is a choice, and I choose to be happy.

I think the rewards of being an actor is playing the parts you love, portraying characters that you can’t play in your own life, and hopefully entertaining people.

The other day, I said I should write a song, ‘When Does the New Wear Off?’ I think it would be a helluva title.

You have to believe in yourself before anyone else can believe in you.

Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and go for it.

I don’t want anything seventy-thirty. Fifty-fifty’s always good enough for me

Love is rare. Life is strange. Nothing lasts. People change.

You know you’re getting old when you go to more funerals than you do weddings.

It’s always better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared.

Nobody, man or woman, has ever wrecked a good marriage.

I won’t go hunting with you, Jake, but I’ll go chasing women.

I think the biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved.

I’m exactly where I want to be – we live out here on the James River outside Richmond. I have three ponds, and we catch the biggest, most beautiful bass you’ve ever looked at in your life.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.

I went further on less talent than anyone, but I was a damned good entertainer.

I made more money yesterday than I ever thought I’d make in an entire lifetime. But it’s like somebody’s going to take it all away from me and I’ll be back in Texas, installing them damned irrigation wells. I didn’t like that when I was sixteen. And I know I wouldn’t like it when I’m eighty.

I can’t change yesterday, but I can change today.

I was a hard-workin’ little boy. Oh, I worked. Pullin’ cotton, shockin’ grain, cuttin’ wheat, loadin’ wheat, choppin’ cotton, cleanin’ chicken houses, milkin’ cows, plowin’.

Keep your head on straight, keep your heart in the right place, and things will work out.

The other day, I said I should write a song, ‘When Does the New Wear Off?’ I think it would be a helluva title.

Somebody said he came from New Orleans, where he got in a fight over a Cajun queen. And a crushing blow from a huge right hand, sent a Louisiana fella to the Promised Land.

I find it hard to look at Jessica Tandy or Morgan Freeman. I can’t look at them and not see the characters they play.

I’ve seen so many people in this business that made a fortune. They get old and broke and can’t make any money. I tell you something… no one’s going to play a benefit for Jimmy Dean.

I’ve learned the hard way that life isn’t always fair, but that’s no reason not to try to make it better.

God is bigger than people think.

I’ve seen a jillion miracles. They’re all around. Every green leaf is a miracle.

I’m an egotistical actor. I forget people think that maybe they know me.

A lot of things I am, and a lot of things I am not. But I think I’m about as good an American as there is. I love this country. It’s been very, very good to me. And it will be good to anybody if they are willing to give of themselves.

If you want to be successful, you must respect one thing—yourself.

Sausage is a great deal like life. You get out of it about what you put into it.

I used to help my granddaddy make sausage. He would mix it up in a cleaned-out washtub with his hands, no gloves. Man, if we did anything like that today, they would jack the jail up and throw us under it.

To me, acting is the most logical way for people’s neuroses to manifest themselves, in this great need we all have to express ourselves.

My favorite song? ‘Amazing Grace.’ Anybody singing it. But the best it’ll ever be done is by the Scottish National Pipe band and their National Orchestra. It’ll bring tears to your eyes.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

When I was a kid, I used to think, ‘Man, if I could ever afford all the ice cream I want to eat, that’s as rich as I ever want to be.

Be yourself. Because if people don’t like you as you are, they’re not going to like you as somebody you’re trying to be.

I can’t imagine a day when I wouldn’t want to be an actor.

Poverty was the greatest motivating factor in my life.

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

Do what you say you’re going to do. And try to do it a little better than you said you would.

You gotta try your luck at least once a day, because you could be going around lucky all day and not even know it.

Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today.

Love is an ice cream sundae, with all the marvelous coverings. Sex is the cherry on top.