The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world takes off its hat to those who put in more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.

To be granted some kind of usable talent and to be able to use it to the fullest extent of which you are capable—this, to me, is a kind of joy that is almost unequaled.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of everything else to which he is justly entitled.

What you are not, you can never be, until and unless you do something about it.

Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.

If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

A fast way to demolish relationships, shatter credibility and disrespect yourself is by not following through when you say you are going to do something.

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.

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

But we cannot simply sit and stare at our wounds forever.

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.

You can’t change how people treat you or what they say about you. All you can do is change how you react to it.

Are you one of the flock that follows, or Are you one that shall lead the way?

You cannot make progress without making decisions.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

False leaders rarely engage succession planning for fear of no longer being seen as the leader.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

To educate in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

The greatest kindness one can render to any man is leading him to truth.

It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know."

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

Let us resolve to be masters, not victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.