The best of men are but men at best.

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

The perils of overwork are slight compared to the dangers of inactivity.

It is none of their business that you have to learn how to write. Let them think you were born that way.

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write.

The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.

An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity.

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

The heights by great men reached and kept Where not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.

The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

Life is a series of experiences, each one of which makes us bigger, even though sometimes it is hard to realize this. For the world was built to develop character, and we must learn that setbacks and griefs which endure help us in our march forward.

Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.

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

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

I'm a writer, and I will write what I want to write.

There are few things more dishonorable than misleading the young.

I want you to be everything that's you, deep at the center of your being.

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

It's a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own.

The higher you soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.

If we do not make common cause to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage.

Once you say you're going to settle for second, that's what happens to you in life.

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.

I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.

To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come.

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