Be a guardian to your greatness.

Badness you can get easily, in quantity: the road is smooth, and it lies close by. But in front of excellence the immortal gods have put sweat, and long and steep is the way to it, and rough at first. But when you come to the top, then it is easy, even though it is hard.

Desire is the key to motivation, but it’s the determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal—a commitment to excellence—that will enable you to attain the success you seek.

Real excellence does not come cheaply. A certain price must be paid in terms of practice, patience, and persistence—natural ability notwithstanding.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

How excellent is thy name in all the earth.

If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence.

I am not remotely interested in just being good.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly’.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

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.

Confidence…thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.

To me there has never been a higher source of earthly honor or distinction than that connected with advances in science.

Duty, honor, country. Those three hallowed words dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

There is only one time that is important—now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.

He who does not desire power is fit to hold it.

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

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

Surely human affairs would be far happier if the power in men to be silent were the same as that to speak. But experience more than sufficiently teaches that men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues.