Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.

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

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!

I have endured a great deal of ridicule without much malice; and have received a great deal of kindness, not quite free from ridicule. I am used to it.

You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do.

The lion doesn't turn around when the small dog barks.

If we judge ourselves only by our aspirations and everyone else only their conduct we shall soon reach a very false conclusion.

A good joke is the one ultimate and sacred thing which cannot be criticized.

They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.

How much time he gains who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks, but only at what he does himself, to make it just and holy.

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.

If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.

Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.

In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, and so ripen it by degrees.

A man must stand erect, not be kept erect by others.

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare—I have no use for him, either.

Plans will get you into things, but you have got to work your way out.

I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

A leader's greatness is found in bringing out greatness in others.

A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special...

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

The United States of America is the greatest, the noblest and, in its original founding principles, the only moral country in the history of the world.

Before a man can accomplish anything of an enduring nature in the world, he must first of all acquire some measure of success in the management of his own mind.