The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat.

You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.

A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.

We do not consider our principles as dogmas contained in books said to come from heaven. We derive our inspiration, not from heaven, or the unseen world, but directly from life.

Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself.

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

If you put off everything till you're sure of it, you'll never get anything done.

People throw stones at you and you convert them into milestones.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path.

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.' Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.

Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.