The gods help them that help themselves.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.

When an archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull's--eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim, improve yourself.

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.

He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.

Action expresses priorities.

However many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?

We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

You have no idea what your legacy will be. Your legacy is what you do every day. Your legacy is every life you’ve touched, every person whose life was either moved or not. It’s every person you’ve harmed or helped. That’s your legacy.

We are all one family in the world. Building a community that empowers everyone to attain their full potential through each of us respecting each other's dignity, rights and responsibilities makes thee world a better place to live.

I never encounter anything except my responsibility.

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it continues the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street.

The resources, advantages, and the powers of the American people are very great, and they have, consequently, succeed to equally great responsibilities.

We do not do what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are—that is a fact.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

He who has peace of mind disturbs neither himself nor another.

No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access.

You cannot have a proud and chivalrous spirit if your conduct is mean and paltry; for whatever a man’s actions are, such must be his spirit.

The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases. Each of us carries his own life-form—an indeterminable form which cannot be superseded by any other.

The clearest way in the Universe is through a forest wilderness.

Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.

If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.

I do nothing upon myself, and yet am mine own executioner.

The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.

My wish for you is that you continue. Continue to be who you are, to astonish a mean world with your acts of kindness.

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn.

Work is love made visible.

The heights by great men reached and kept Where not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.

One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.