Startquote

This is the highest wisdom that I own; freedom and life are earned by those alone who conquer them each day anew. Talent develops in quiet places, character in the full current of human life. In all things it is better to hope than to despair. Doubt can only be removed by action. Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men. Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks. We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases. A really great talent finds its happiness in execution. As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts expressed -- That can make life a garden. Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; ...

One cannot be always laughing at a man without now and then stumbling on something witty. There is safety in reserve, but no attraction. One cannot love a reserved person. I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives. Surprises are foolish things. The pleasure is not enhanced, and the inconvenience is often considerable. Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. Let me know when you begin the new tea, and the new white wine. My present elegancies have not yet made me indifferent to such matters. I am still a cat if I see a mouse. It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy — it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others. The more I see of the world, the more am i dissatisfied with it; and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsis...

Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing. The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors. He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government. Never spend money before you have it. Determine never to be idle. No person will have the occasion to complain of the want of time, who never...

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them. You must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from. Your only limit is your soul. I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse. We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. I do not like to repeat successes; I like to go on to other things. That’s the real trouble with the world. Too many people grow up. You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality. Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable. Do a good job. You don't have to worry about the money; it will take care of itself. Just do ...

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life. If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things. If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. Not until we are lost do we begin to und...

That’s what we ought to find out. Not just what you said. Not just business and earning a living. Things like winning battles, or saving people out of fires, or climbing mountains. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. Rights are not a matter of numbers - and there can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob. If a society is to be free, its government has to be controlled. The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me. Our culture is dying because our universities have to depend on the alms of the meat packers, the steel puddlers and the purveyors of breakfast cereals. Every man builds his world in his own image. He has the power to choose, but no power to escape the necessity of choice. I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine. A government is the most dangerous threat to...

In the depths of your hopes and desires, lies your silent knowledge of the beyond, and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow, your heart dreams of spring. Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity. Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream. You may chain my hands, you may shackle my feet; you may even throw me into a dark prison; but you shall not enslave my thinking, because it is free! You cannot judge any man beyond your knowledge of him, and how small is your knowledge. How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything, but to be okay. We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them. I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the v...

Every time you state what you want or believe, you're the first to hear it. It's a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don't put a ceiling on yourself. I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I’ve become. If I had, I’d have done it a lot earlier. You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job and not be paid for it. The reason I've been able to be so financially successful is my focus has never, ever for one minute been money. One of the biggest lessons I've learned recently is that when you don't know what to do, you should do nothing until you figure out what to do because a lot of times you feel like you are pressed against the wall, and you've got to make a decision. You never have to do anything. Don't know what to do? Do nothing. Let your light shine. Shine within you so that it can shine on someone else. Let your light shine. Nobody but you is respon...

You are the master of your destiny. You can influence, direct and control your own environment. You can make your life what you want it to be. Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward. A positive mind finds a way it can be done; a negative mind looks for all the ways it can't be done. Concentration requires a definiteness of purpose in such proportion that it becomes an obsession. There's no use of having a motive unless you put obsession of desire or obsession of purpose in back of it. Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass. The subconscious mind only knows what you tell it, or what you allow other people to tell it, or what you allow the circumstance of life to tell it ... it accepts the things that you send over, and if you send over predomina...

Minds are of three kinds: one is capable of thinking for itself; another is able to understand the thinking of others; and a third can neither think for itself nor understand the thinking of others. The first is of the highest excellence, the second is excellent, and the third is worthless. Power is the pivot on which everything hinges. He who has the power is always right; the weaker is always wrong. It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles. Politics have no relation to morals. Men are so stupid and concerned with their present needs, they will always let themselves be deceived. Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great. All courses of action are risky, so...

History is written by the winners. Victory is not always winning the battle...but rising every time you fall. He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat. To have a right estimate of a man's character, we must see him in misfortune. The truest wisdom is a resolute determination. The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future. Death is nothing; but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. The best way to make every one poor is to insist on equality of wealth. I saw the crown of France laying on the ground, so I picked it up with my sword. A leader is a dealer in hope. You become strong by defying defeat and by turning loss into gain and failure to success. If you build an army of 100 lions and their leader is a dog, in any fight, the lions will die like a dog. But if you build an army of 100 dogs and their leader is a lion, all dogs will fight as a lion If I had to choose a religion, the sun as the universal...

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool. If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted People usually think according to their inclinations, speak according to their learning and ingrained opinions, but generally act according to custom. If money be not they servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him. Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few sho...

Second hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Sleep, that deplorable curtailment of the joy of life. Language is wine upon the lips. Why are women so much more interesting to men than men are to women? If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. Nothing has really happened until it has been recorded. All extremes of feeling are allied with madness. You cannot find peace by avoiding life. A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry. Books are the mirrors of the soul. Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. The truth is, I often like women. I like their unconventionality. I like their compl...