The effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought.

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

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%.

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

He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.

The results you achieve will be in direct proportion to the effort you apply.

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

I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.

The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future, too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think, and to speak.

Conceit spoils the finest genius… and the great charm of all power is modesty.

The especial genius of women I believe to be electrical in movement, intuitive in function, spiritual in tendency.

In the ordinary business of life, industry can do anything which genius can do, and very many things which it cannot.

Constant effort and frequent mistakes are the stepping stones to genius.

Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth or absolute truth can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.

One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.

He who has so little knowledge of human natures as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Almost every significant breakthrough is the result of a courageous break with traditional ways of thinking.

The way you habitually think will determine your destiny.

The past is memory. The future is imagination. All that exists is now.

Some of the worst things in my life never happened.

Never regard study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn.

Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and setting them to do useful work.

I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.

Work is love made visible.

The minute you get away from fundamentals—whether its proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation—the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you're doing.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, butt in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed.