The greatness of man lies in his decision to be stronger than his condition.

A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.

A series of failures may culminate in the best possible result.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven't half the strength you think they have.

May your troubles be less and your blessings be more.

Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart's desire.

The liar is no better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth.

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.

Those disputing, contradicting, and confuting people are generally unfortunate in their affairs. They get victory, sometimes, but they never get good will, which would be of more use to them.

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 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.

Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good.

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

The hardest thing to explain is the glaring evident which everybody had decided not to see.

It is your decisions, and not your conditions, that determine your destiny.

Our life does not develop as a result of chance, but as a result of causes.

Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.

I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

Unsuccessful people make decisions based on current situations. Successful people make decisions based on where they want to be.

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given. Freedom is something people take, and people are as free as they want to be.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

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.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the induction of a new order of things.

Let us resolve to be masters, not victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.

It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own.

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.

What doesn’t transmit light creates its own darkness.

You don’t have to depend on any material possessions, they depend on you, you create them, you own the one and only tool of production.

We always like those who admire us; we do not always like those whom we admire.

I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.

The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.

Your first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of your own energy and then to help to orchestrate the energy of those around you.