Success comes to a writer as a rule so gradually that it is always something of a shock to him to look back and realize the heights to which he has climbed.

She's the kind of girl who climbed the ladder of success wrong by wrong.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

After much prayerful consideration I feel that I must say I have climbed my last political mountain.

We've climbed the mighty mountain. I see the valley below and it's a valley of peace.

I am not bound for any public place but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods.

We climbed the stairs to the third floor where Osama bin Laden died early in the morning of May 2 2011.

My wife and I had decided not to let anybody take pictures of our home because it was just the last place on earth we had that was unscathed. But people have climbed over the fence they've taken aerial shots. They've gotten my address and put it on the Internet.

If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed races won or lasting happiness achieved.

So I go to my first book signing and these two girls came up and gave me a piece of paper: '10 reasons you should date our dad. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He's a lawyer.' He didn't know what was going on. He didn't even know me. They called him and he came down and asked me out that day. Now I'm dating their dad!

The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.