It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.

The charges we bring against others often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against our faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by tellings against ourselves.

I am a true laborer: I earn that I eat, get that I wear, owe no man hate, envy no man’s happiness, glad of other men’s good, content with my harm.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristics in men.

I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.

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

One can acquire everything in solitude—except character.

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.

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

Consensus: the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values, and policies in search of something in which no one believes, but to which no one objects; the process of avoiding the very issues that have to be solved, merely because you cannot get agreement on the way ahead. What great cause would have been fought and won under the banner: 'I stand for consensus?

If you want the cooperation of humans around you, you must make them feel they are important, and you do that by being genuine and humble.

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.

You assist an evil system most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil system never deserves such allegiance. Allegiance to it means partaking of the evil. A good person will resist an evil system with his or her whole soul.

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. This may well be mankind's last chance between chaos and community.

Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; but if a thing is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.

We acquire a particular quality by acting in a particular way.

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

Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.

It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.

Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.

If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction, and skillful execution; it represents the wide choice of many alternatives.

Rest satisfied with doing well, and leave others to talk of you as they will.

He whose honor depends on the opinion of the mob must day by day strive with the greatest anxiety, act and scheme in order to retain his reputation. For the mob is varied and inconsistent, and therefore if a reputation is not carefully preserved it dies quickly.

When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better.

You have no idea what your legacy will be. Your legacy is what you do every day. Your legacy is every life you’ve touched, every person whose life was either moved or not. It’s every person you’ve harmed or helped. That’s your legacy.

An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.