Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionately to their occupancy of your thoughts.

To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold.

Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges, and accomplishments. What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them. And their race is not to blame for everything—good or bad—that happens in their lives.

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.

No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him no access.

Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.

Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose.

Revenge-seeking minds destroy states, while those seeking reconciliation build nations.

Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Keep your mind off the things you don’t want by keeping it on the things you do want.

Words are a lens to focus one's mind.

As a rule, we find what we look for; we achieve what we get ready for.

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

Two percent of the people think; three percent of the people think they think; and ninety-five percent of the people would rather die than think.

The man who has anticipated the coming of troubles takes away their power when they arrive.

The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.