It is not always people who start out the smartest who end up the smartest.

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.

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.'

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.

Hope is like a word made with cloud, without faith, it quickly blows away.

Don't try and perfect yourself for one person. Wait for the one who loves your imperfections and make you feel perfect.

Nothing about me is "deep", but my divine creator is so.

The labor of women in the house, certainly, enables men to produce more wealth than they otherwise could; and in this way women are economic factors in society. But so are horses.

...even the donkeys were quiet.

One radical free spirit nonconformist is pretty much like another.

Just make it (his obituary): born in Russia, first lesson at 3, debut at 7, debut in America in 1917.

I like reading, free diving and hiking. But my favorite thing to do is travel anywhere in Greece. I love everything about that place.

Beyond the town, darker than dark, King Haggard's castle teetered like a lunatic on stilts.

Much of my writing has taken the form of a pilgrimage: to sacred places that represent the best of America, to musicians and other artists who represent the best of their art.