The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.
You long for success? Start at the bottom; dig down.
A tree with strong roots can withstand the most violent storm, but the tree can't grow roots just as the storm appears on the horizon.
Success consists in being successful, not in having potential for success. Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace, but there's no palace till it's built.
Nurturing a project from the ground floor is something I've been wanting to do.
Spreading manure is a great way of bringing yourself down to earth.
My perception is that I'm a guy who really does a lot of homework surrounding any project that I do.
It is ambition enough to be employed as an under-labourer in clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge.
It takes forty men with their feet on the ground to keep one man with his head in the air.
I started from zero and went back to the basics in gymnastics.
Spectacular achievements come from unspectacular preparation.
Something like 'Much Ado' happens, and even 'Avengers' happens because of the years of building connections and doing the work and proving yourself.
It takes a lot of un-spectacular preparation, to get spectacular results
You know the famous quote, sometimes you have to be ready so you don't have to get ready. I do a lot of things that, it's like, off the camera, that a lot of people don't see me do.
Be convinced that, if man were able to reach the end without preparatory studies, such studies would not be preparatory but tiresome and utterly superfluous.
If you're able to build something on a strong foundation, you're not going to be easily swayed.
I'm very proud of my career. A lot of people get their career from the judges of 'Drag Race' saying they're great. I had to go and build that reputation from the ground up.
In all matters, before beginning, a diligent preparation should be made.
The main part of the tree is the root, and the root is always beneath the ground. It never is brought out into the light.
Reagan won the Cold War by first restoring America's economy and military and then staring down an economically weakened Soviet Union. He knew defeating Russia couldn't be accomplished without laying the groundwork.
We laid the track on a smooth stretch of ground about one hundred feet north of the new building.
You can't be a first-world economy in the 21st century if you haven't laid the groundwork to seize the opportunities.
The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses - behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights.
I don't kid myself in thinking that I'm on the front lines. I know the people who are on the front lines. I mean there are people in some freakin' significant places making on-the-ground social front line change. I've marched. I've put feet on the ground for what I believe and what I'm against with no compromise. And there are people who are risking a whole hell of a lot more than me to make change, that's for damn sure.
99.99% of your creation is complete before you see ANY physical evidence of it.
