You stand in your own light.

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.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

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.

The two qualities that chiefly inspire regard and affection [are] that a thing is you own and that it is your only one.

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

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

So many of our dreams at first seem impossible. Then they seem improbable. And then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

This is the mark of a really admirable man: steadfastness in the face of trouble.

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, Can circumvent or hinder or control. The firm resolve of a determined soul. Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great; All things give way before it, soon or late.

What though strength fails? Boldness is certain to win praise. In mighty enterprises, it is enough to have had the determination.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take for better, for worse, as his portion; that, though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

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