You don’t choose who you fall in love with, do you? And once you do fall in love—that obsessive sort of love, that all-consuming love, where two people can’t stand to be apart from each other for even a moment—how are you supposed to let a love like that pass you by?

I do not come from a rich family, but I come from a really good family.

My name is Jordan Belfort. I was raised in a tiny apartment in Queens. At the tender age of 22 I headed to Wall Street. Within months I started my own firm out of an abandoned auto body shop. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.

I believe in total immersion, if you want to be rich, you have to program your mind to be rich. You have to unlearn all the thoughts that were making you poor and replace them with new thoughts - rich thoughts.

The easiest way to make money is create something of such value that everybody wants and go out and give and create value, the money comes automatically.

I want you to back yourself into a corner. Give yourself no choice but to succeed. Let the consequences of failure become so dire and so unthinkable that you’ll have no choice but to do whatever it takes to succeed.

The story that you tell yourself is exactly what holds you back from being successful.

Best way to sell something: don't sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect and trust of those who might buy.

Don't hang up until the client either buys or dies.

Don't follow the path. Blaze the trail.

When you live your life by poor standards, you inflict damage on everyone who crosses your path, especially those you love.

Winners use words that say 'must' and 'will'.

The year I turned 26, as the head of my own brokerage firm, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.

The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.

Playing it safe and taking no risks is a shortcut to poverty

If you give people a good enough 'why', they will always figure out the 'how'.