Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the induction of a new order of things.

The individual is not accountable to society for his actions, insofar as these concern the interests of no person but himself.

I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

There are a thousand excuses for failure but never a good reason.

The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.

To a greater force, and to a better nature, you, free, are subject, and that creates the mind in you, which the heavens have not in their charge. Therefore if the present world go astray, the cause is in you, in you it is to be sought.

If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody expects of you. Never excuse yourself.

Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.

When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favor of the belief which he finds in himself.

My problem lies in reconciling my gross habits with my net income.

The way you habitually think will determine your destiny.

It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit.

Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.

Moral virtue is the child of habit.

It is a hard thing to leave any deeply routined life, even if you hate it.

I never encounter anything except my responsibility.

It is the responsibility of leadership to work intelligently with what is given, and not to waste time fantasizing about a world of flawless people and perfect choices.

We know of no culture that has said, articulately, that there is no difference between men and women except in the way they contribute to the creation of the next generation.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

Men who reject the responsibility of thought and reason can only exist as parasites on the thinking of others.

Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it continues the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself—and be lenient to everybody else.

I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street.

You and only you are responsible for your life choices and decisions.

We are all one family in the world. Building a community that empowers everyone to attain their full potential through each of us respecting each other's dignity, rights and responsibilities makes thee world a better place to live.