"Nobody can hinder you from doing what you want, if that's what you set your mind to. You can always find a hook to hang excuses on, but they're only excuses. You don't have anyone to blame but yourself. Nobody else makes you fail."

"God loves us all, and all of us are equal in God's sight."

"My mentors are those individuals who saw potential in me long before I perceived it in myself – or who challenged me to do more – the people who helped guide me toward excellence."

"Because they believed in my ability , I was able to believe in it as well."

"Do not underestimate the importance of feeling special."

"I thank God for all the people whom God sent into my life, the people who gave their best so that I could learn to give my best."

"The outstanding doctor constantly emphasized the humanitarian aspect of medical care."

"We have no time for excuses."

"If we know human anatomy and we are reasonably intelligent, he assumes that we can figure out how to do almost anything."

"Be nice to people – all people – even when you don't have to be. Everybody is important."

"Give your best. Settle for nothing less than doing your best for yourself and for others."

"Always give your best and try to figure out how to do an even better job."

"Not everyone has to be a high-powered neurosurgeon to add significantly to the equation that brings about success here."

"Occasionally I talk with people who see doctors as people who do nothing but give of themselves and never receive from anyone else – especially not from their patients. That is totally false. The longer I remain in my profession, the more I realize how much I receive from those who come to me for help."

"Only God knows the beginning and the end."

"We don't have to explain miracles; all we have to do is accept them."

"When we have done our best, we also have to learn that we still need to rely on God. Our best – no matter how good – is incomplete if we leave God out of the picture."

"When I don't have an answer, I pray. God is the only alternative source of help."

"Thanks, God, for honoring our best by giving us a miracle."

"I started reading about people of great accomplishment ... and it dawned on me suddenly that the person who has the most to do with what happens in your life is you."

"I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal."

"There is no fulfillment in things whatsoever. And I think one of the reasons that depression reigns supreme amongst the rich and famous is some of them thought that maybe those things would bring them happiness. But what, in fact, does is having a cause, having a passion. And that's really what gives life's true meaning."

"Ultimately, if you accept the evolutionary theory, you dismiss ethics, you don’t have to abide by a set of moral codes, you determine your own conscience based on your own desires. You have no reason for things such as selfless love, when a father dives in to save his son from drowning. You can trash the Bible as irrelevant, just silly fables, since you believe that it does not conform to scientific thought. You can be like Lucifer, who said, “I will make myself like the Most High.”"

"By believing we are the product of random acts, we eliminate morality and the basis of ethical behavior. For if there is no such thing as moral authority, you can do anything you want. You make everything relative, and there’s no reason for any of our higher values."

"So after a while, if people won't accept your excuses, you stop looking for them."

"I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it."

"There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everyone go along to get along. But that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run in terms of solving our problems, and someone has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to the bullies."

"My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it. And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain. And when you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they’d have to be that way for a reason. And various scientists have said, “Well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that’s how they were”—you know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you."