Within the book and volume of my brain.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

There is no education like adversity.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and knowledge are not infused into us from without.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

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.

Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

Solitude is for me a fount of healing which makes my life worth living.

The knowledge and skills you have achieved are meant to be forgotten so you can float comfortably in emptiness, without obstruction.

For one wild, glad moment we snapped the chain that binds us to earth, and joining hands with the winds we felt ourselves divine.

I love people. I love my family, my children… but inside myself is a place where I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.

Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

Be grateful for your life, every detail of it, and your face will come to shine like a sun, and everyone who sees it will be made glad and peaceful.

If you have no time for prayer and meditation, you will have lots of time for sickness and trouble.

An inability to stay quiet . . . is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind.

The world is a comedy to those that think, and a tragedy to those that feel.

Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

Nothing exists from whose nature some effect does not follow.

And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth.

You are the only person who thinks in your mind. You are the power and authority in your world.

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively.

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.

The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world; and that is an idea whose time has come.