Failure is information-we label it failure, but it's more like, 'This didn't work, I'm a problem solver, and I'll try something else.'

No matter what your current ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.

In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I'm going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here's a chance to grow.

Effort is one of those things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.

The best thing parents can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.

What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?

Test scores and measures of achievement tell you where a student is, but they don't tell you where a student could end up.

Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?

Important achievements require a clear focus, all-out effort, and a bottomless trunk full of strategies. Plus allies in learning.

The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn.

Exceptional people convert life's setbacks into future successes.

My grandmother, a dim, stern figure, named her children Lily and Violet, which I guess from seeing a picture of my mother's paved, ugly backyard, was the nearest she came to a garden.

I will bear this grief, I will endure it. I will reach a point where it doesn't kick me down an abyss whenever I turn my back on it.

Giving does not only preceed receiving

If we're stuck with having expectations, there's a very good reason to embrace positive ones: It's that we often create what we anticipate.

One individual cannot possible make a difference, alone. It is individual efforts, collectively, that makes a noticeable difference - all the difference in the world!

...it seemed appropriate that I should develop some kind of illness. This is a good idea when you are at a loose end because everything, up to and including herpes, is better than being bored.

I've made hundreds of legendary records that people talk about that didn't sell.

All any filmmaker can do is focus on creating something that has depth and resonance, and then do whatever possible to get it seen by audiences and hope the word spreads.

We should be leading, and we’re not. We need to get serious about broadband, we need to get serious about competition, we need to get serious about our country.

If you want to improve how you manage time - stop doing what doesn't need to be done!