Michelle Obama

Good relationships feel good. They feel right. They don’t hurt.

No country can ever truly flourish if it stifles the potential of its women and deprives itself of the contributions of half its citizens.

One of the things I realized is that if you do not take control over your time and your life, other people will gobble it up. If you don’t prioritize yourself, you constantly start falling lower and lower on your list, your kids fall lower and lower on your list.

I was loved dearly by my father but I was never so precious that he didn’t think that I could be in there right at the table.

My habit is at the beginning of the year, I look at a blank calendar and then we put everything for the kids first like potlucks, sporting events, parent-teacher conferences, doctor’s appointments, and vacations. Second is me. When do I want to work out? When do I want to hang out with my girlfriends? What trips do I want to take? When can I take a long weekend? Put that on there. And then once all that’s done, everything else can come around that. It’s amazing because it forces you to say “no” because you’ve already blocked out the time.

When you’ve worked hard, and done well, and walked through that doorway of opportunity, you do not slam it shut behind you. You reach back, and you give other folks the same chances that helped you succeed.

Keys to success: Research your ideas, plan for success, expect success, and just do it.

One of the problems when you become successful is that jealousy and envy inevitably follow. There are people-I categorize them as life’s losers-who get their sense of accomplishment and achievement from trying to stop others. As far as I’m concerned, if they had any real ability they wouldn’t be fighting me, they’d be doing something constructive themselves.

The surest way not to fail is to determine to succeed.

In the end, you’re measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.

There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.

The recipe of success is to study while others are sleeping, work while others are loafing, prepare while others are playing, and dream while others are wishing.

It’s next to impossible to build a successful business without relationships.

When you’re successful, things have a momentum and you can’t tell if you have created the momentum or it’s creating you.

I was determined to succeed in what I loved to do. I wasn’t going to let my disability stand in my way.

Can success change the human mechanism so completely between one dawn and another? Can it make one feel taller, more alive, handsomer, uncommonly gifted and indomitably secure with the certainty that this is the way life will always be? It can and it does!

My life is a success – I am a happy man.

Success comes from failure, not from memorizing the right answers.

Losing is tough.

Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.

I measure success by how many people love me.