The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as painted, or composed music or wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes.
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
With malice toward none, with charity for all.
If you believe in what you are doing, then let nothing hold you up in your work. Much of the best work of the world has been done against seeming impossibilities. The thing is to get the work done.
Before we can forgive one another, we must understand one another
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.
If we all did the things we are capable of doing we would literally astound ourselves.
If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them.
Wisdom is supreme , therefore make a full effort to get wisdom. Esteem her and she will exalt you , embrace her and she will honor you. Wise men speak because they have something to say, fools because they have to say something.
A man is not old until regrets start taking place of dreams.
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.
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow.
The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.
Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.
You will become as small as your controlling desire ; as great as your dominant aspiration.
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams !
There is something inside all of us that yearns not for reason but for mystery, not for penetrating clear thought but for the whisperings of the irrational, not for science but for wizardry disguised as science, not for rationally founded influence but for magic.
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
What really matters is what you do with what you have.
Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.
The past does not equal the future.
When I exercise, I wear all black. Its like a funeral for my fat.
There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Go as far as you can see and when you get there, you will always be able to see farther.
You can observe a lot just by watching.
The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.
Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then oftentimes we find that it is comparatively simple to double or treble our former capacities and to amaze ourselves by the results achieved. Quotas, when set up for us by others, are challenges which goad us on to surpass ourselves. The outstanding leaders of every age are those who set up their own quotas and constantly achieve them.
Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them !
A man builds a fine house ; and now he has a master, and a task for life ; he is to furnish, watch, show it, and keep it in repair, the rest of his days.
Children need love, especially when they do not deserve it.
The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.
Every hero becomes a bore at last.
The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.
Words do two major things : They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness.
The leader wonders about everything, wants to learn as much as he can, is willing to take risks, experiment, try new things. He does not worry about failure, but embraces errors, knowing he will learn from them.
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Go before the people with your example, and be laborious in their affairs.
A life lived with integrity -- even if it lacks the trappings of fame and fortune is a shinning star in whose light others may follow in the years to come.
It is not the creation of wealth that is wrong, but the love of money for its own sake.
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.
The sublimity of wisdom is to do those things living that are desired when dying.
To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says Leave no stone unturned.
To reach a port we must sail, sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it. But we must not drift or lie at anchor.
They can because they think they can.
Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.
The best leader brings out the best in those he has stewardship over.
It's easier to prepare and prevent, than to repair and repent.
The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done.
We are made for loving. If we don't love, we will be like plants without water.
For myself, I am an optimist -- it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
Consider the little mouse how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts his life to one whole only
In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.
Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance.
I never let my subject get in the way of what I want to talk about.
Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness , it is generally the by- product of other activities.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never !
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.
Doomed are the hotheads ! Unhappy are they who lose their cool and are too proud to say, ''I'm sorry. ''
If anything is worth trying at all, it's worth trying at least ten times.
We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.
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.
There is time for everything.
We must have friendship for all, we must be merciful toward those that are in misery, when people are happy, we ought to be happy, and to the wicked we must be indifferent. These attitudes will make the mind peaceful.
I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident... . Almost none of my inventions came about totally by accident. They were achieved by having trained myself to endure and tolerate hard work.
No man ever became great without many and great mistakes.
If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
If you want to reach a goal, you must see the reaching in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.
The "how" thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile "ifs" but goes right to work on the creative "how''.
Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.
If I were required to guess off-hand, and without collusion with higher minds, what is the bottom cause of the amazing material and intellectual advancement of the last fifty years, I should guess that it was the modern-born and previously non-existent disposition on the part of men to believe that a new idea can have value.
No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see the possibilities -- they're always there.
Believe that you are bigger than your difficulties, for you are, indeed.
People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing-that's why we recommend it daily.
The person who will not stand for something will fall for anything.
Great men are not always wise.
The whole universe is only the self with variations, one tune made bearable by variations. Sometimes there are discords, but they only make the subsequent harmony more perfect. In this hell of a world one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true, this I have learnt after suffering all my life, all else is mere moonshine.
Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.
Experience is not what happens to a man, it's what a man does with what happens to him.
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
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.
Are you fit company for the person you wish to become ?
That first peak is the best place to pause and look back, to see if you took the easiest route, to learn the lessons from the first climb. And it is the best place to examine the terrain ahead, to change your plans and goals, to take a deep breath and begin climbing again.
Are you bored with life ? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.