An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

The heights by great men reached and kept Where not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.

America’s abundance was not created by public sacrifices to the “common good,” but by the productive genius of free men who pursued their own personal interests and the making of their own private fortunes.

Master of human destinies am I! Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait.

The man who is truly good and wise will bear with dignity whatever fortune sends, and will always make the best of his circumstances.

This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own behavior—we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion, knaves, thieves, and teachers by spherical predominance, drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence.

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.

A fair character is a fair fortune.

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

One day Alice came to fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. “Which road do I take?” she asked. His response was a question: “Where do you want to go?” “I don’t know,” Alice answered. “Then, “said the cat, “it doesn’t matter.”

Every act you have ever performed since the day you were born was performed because you wanted something.

Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.

Next to the assumption of power is the responsibility of relinquishing it.

Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.

Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

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 true profession of a man is to find his way to himself.

Can’t is the worst word that is written or spoken; Doing more harm here than slander and lies; On it is many a strong spirit broken, And with it many a good purpose dies.

The heart's earnest and pure desire is always fulfilled.

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

If you ask enough people, eventually someone will say yes.

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

Silver and gold I have none; but such as I have give I thee.

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship…the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.

In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; that is. waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both.

Oh! poverty is a weary thing, 'tis full of grief and pain; it keepeth down the soul of man, as with an iron chain.