If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.

There are two ways to get enough: One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

If you have overcome your inclination and not been overcome by it, you have reason to rejoice.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.

Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

Have to and get to—both are choices. One is negative and one is positive. Choose the right one and it can change your life.

Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the lord. Be positive.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple.

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

Nowadays the world is becoming increasingly materialistic, and mankind is reaching toward the very zenith of external progress, driven by an insatiable desire for power and vast possessions. Yet by this vain striving for perfection in a world where everything is relative, they wander even further away from inward peace and happiness of the mind.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consists in nothing more than in the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

Creativity is often blocked to trying to be perfect. Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.

The compass and the square produce perfect circles and squares. By the sages, the human relations are perfectly exhibited.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

And, more importantly, reach for the stars. And realize that it is never too late—not now, not ever—for you to pursue you passion, your pursuit of perfection. And most importantly, your perseverance for making it happen.

Perfect wisdom has four parts; Wisdom, the principle of doing things right. Justice, the principle of doing things equally in public and private. Fortitude, the principle of not fleeing danger, but meeting it. Temperance, the principle of subduing desires and living moderately.

It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our perfection; through art and art only that we can shield ourselves from the sordid perils of actual existence.

Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.

Nothing quite new is perfect.

I’m not perfect. And who knows how many times I’ve fallen short. We all fall short. That’s the amazing thing about the grace of God.

My strength is made perfect in weakness.

Believing as I do that man in the distant future will be a far more perfect creature than he now is, it is an intolerable thought that he and all other sentient beings are doomed to complete annihilation after such long-continued slow progress. To those who fully admit the immortality of the human soul, the destruction of our world will not appear so dreadful.