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

There are a thousand excuses for failure but never a good reason.

I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed.

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

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

We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

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.

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.

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.

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.

Either you run the day, or the day runs you.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the door.

But all my life through, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise.

We don't point a pistol at our own forehead. That is not the way to conduct negotiations.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.

The better you are at communicating negotiating, and handling your fear of rejection, the easier life is.

Tact is the knack of making a point without making an enemy.

Wherever there is injustice, war, discrimination against women, gays and the disadvantaged, I did my best to show up and exert moral persuasion.

It's frightful that people who are so ignorant should have so much influence.

One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.

Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.

My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.

Truly, to tell lies is not honorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable.

There is no rampart that will hold out against malice.

To anger a conservative, lie to him. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

We know how to speak many falsehoods which resemble real things, but we know, when we will, how to speak true things.

Those who are able to see beyond the shadows and lies of their culture will never be understood, let alone believed, by the masses.

If you can't find the truth right where you are, where else do you think you will find it.

A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.