I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished by how much the old man had learned in 7 years.
Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves ; and under a just God, cannot long retain it.
Anything that makes you weak - physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject it as poison.
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.
A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be.
The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word coeur, meaning ''heart''. Thus just as one's heart, by pumping blood to one's arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values whither away into mere facsimiles of virtue.
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you ; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.
The best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly it is dearness only that gives everything its value.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.
It ain't over till it's over.
Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.
Without a general an army is lost.
A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance, and tenacity. The order varies for any given year.
When people are like each other they tend to like each other.
Why is it that the more mistakes people make, the more paranoid they become about other people's mistakes ?
It is not length of life, but depth of life.
The dove is my emblem. I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it. I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said, 'I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, violent one, the other wolf is the loving compassionate one.' The grandson asked him, 'Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?' The grandfather answered, 'The one I feed.'
No man is wise enough by himself.
Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he can and should be and he will become as he can and should be.
There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, the duty which is in our hands, we make ourselves stronger.
Almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it , they feel it, they experience it before they actually do it. They began with the end in mind. You can do it in every area of your life. Before performance, a sales presentation, a difficult confrontation, or the daily challenge of meeting a goal, see it clearly, vividly, relentlessly, over and over again. Create an internal "comfort zone''. Then, when you get into the situation, it isn't foreign. It doesn't scare you.
Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.
The buck stops here.
Consider the little mouse how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one whole only
Seek the wisdom of the ages, but look at the world through the eyes of a child.
Better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.
It's not about the money. It's about what you feel you deserve.
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
Times of great calamity and confusion have ever been productive of the greatest minds. The purest ore is produced from the hottest furnace, and the brightest thunderbolt is elicited from the darkest storm.
Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.
Life is not accountable to us. We are accountable to life.
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
If to do good were easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.
The real test in golf and in life is not in keeping out of the rough, but in getting out after you are in.
Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a revelation.
The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.
But were we burthen'd with like weight of pain, As much, or more, we should ourselves complain.
Every shot you don't take is a guaranteed miss.
Thou love life ? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff that life is made of.
If you command wisely, you'll be obeyed cheerfully.
The secret to happiness is not in doing what one likes to do, but in liking what one has to do.
Today... maybe I can take one step on that profoundly complex path to peace.
Change comes from within.
A wise man makes his own decisions , an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
Curse ruthless time ! Curse our mortality. How cruelly short is the allotted span for all we must cram into it.
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
Only those who do nothing at all make no mistakes but that would be a mistake.
Seeing yourself as you want to be is the key to personal growth.
To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
For changes to be of any true value, they've got to be lasting and consistent.
He who praises another enriches himself far more than he does the one praised. To praise is an investment in happiness. The poorest human being has something to give that the richest could not buy.
Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
I love great music and art, but I think 'cubist' songs and paintings are hideous.
The Missouri is, perhaps, different in appearance and character from all other rivers in the world. There is a terror in its manner which is sensibly felt, the moment we enter its muddy waters from the Mississippi.
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.
No one became poor by giving alms.
It is not what we get. But who we become, what we contribute... that gives meaning to our lives.
If you think you can, or you think you can't, you're probably right.
Our happiness depends on the habit of mind we cultivate. So practice happy thinking every day. Cultivate the merry heart, develop the happiness habit, and life will become a continual feast.
Remember, there is no situation so completely hopeless that something constructive can not be done about it. When faced with a minus, ask yourself what you can do to make it a plus. A person practicing this attitude will extract undreamed-of outcomes from the most unpromising situations. Realize that there are no hopeless situations, there are only people who take hopeless attitudes.
Try to be happy in this present moment, and put not off being so to a time to come, as though that time should be of another make from this which has already come and is ours.
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse , however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.
There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader.
Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.
To be a leader, you must stand for something, or fall for anything.
Winners take time to relish their work, knowing that scaling the mountain is what makes the view from the top so exhilarating.
The unselfish effort to bring cheer to others will be the beginning of a happier life for ourselves.
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
Follow your dreams.
Honesty pays, but it doesn't seem to pay enough to suit some people.
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life - it goes on.
The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
Sharing is the essence of teaching. It is, I have come to believe, the essence of civilizationWithout it, the imagination is but the echo of the self, trapped in a soundproof chamber, reverberating upon itself until it is spent in exhaustion or futility.
I always try to turn my personal struggles into something helpful for others.
A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.
Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way, and never again.
The principles you live by create the world you live in ; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world. -
Practice loving people. It is true that this requires effort and continued practice, for some are not very lovable, or so it seems - with emphasis on "seems". Every person has lovable qualities when you really learn to know him.
If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have the capacity at the beginning.
You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.