We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Without properly kept accounts it is impossible to maintain truth in its pristine purity.

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.

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

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.

Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

We do not do what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are—that is a fact.

In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.

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

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.

Champions take responsibility. When the ball is coming over the net, you can be sure I want the ball.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself—and be lenient to everybody else.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it continues the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

The aim of art, the aim of a life can only be to increase the sum of freedom and responsibility to be found in every man and in the world. It cannot, under any circumstances, be to reduce or suppress that freedom, even temporarily.