I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes, and accomplish great affairs among mankind, if he first forms a good plan, and, cutting off all amusements or other employments that would divert his attention, make the execution of that same plan his sole study and business.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of everything else to which he is justly entitled.

Gentleness is strength under control. It is the ability to stay calm, no matter what happens.

Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.

To be granted some kind of usable talent and to be able to use it to the fullest extent of which you are capable—this, to me, is a kind of joy that is almost unequaled.

Profit in business comes from repeat customers, customers that boast about your project or service, and that bring friends with them.

There is only one way to make a great deal of money, and that is in a business of your own.

If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences.

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.

A business absolutely devoted to service will have one worry about profits. They will be embarrassingly large.

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall be given a square deal.

Things of this world are in so constant a flux, that nothing remains long in the same state.

God, give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.

Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.

No ascent is too steep for mortals. Heaven itself we seek in our folly.

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

Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed—there's so little competition.

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness for the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.