If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives. Do good anyway.

The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.

You can tell more about a person by what he says about others, than you can by what others say about him!

Surely what a man does when he is in an uncomfortable situation is the best evidence for the sort of man he is.

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

A fair character is a fair fortune.

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.

Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for a trickster and catch him at first attempt, but beware of an honest man.

I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. The proceed to improve on the worst.

What signifies knowing the names, if you know not the nature of things?

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.

If there is anything in the world a person should fight for, it is freedom to pursue his ideal, because in that is his great opportunity for self-expression, for the unfoldment of the greatest thing possible to him.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

What we do now echoes in eternity.