You can't live a perfect day until you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
Make today worth remembering.
You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.
The person who takes no chances generally has to take whatever is left when others are through choosing.
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
I don't think necessity is the mother of invention. Invention ... arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.
I will take fate by the throat; it will never bend me completely to its will.
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.
To attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.
When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them.
Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.
Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.
The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.
If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it - then I can achieve it.
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
