The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart.

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year.

Not all storms come to disrupt your life. Some come to clear your path.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

Put your greatest possession on the tallest shelf, so if you fall you have something to reach for.

Obstacles are like wild animals. They are cowards but they will bluff you if they can. If they see you are afraid of them, they are liable to spring upon you; but if you look them squarely in the eye, they will sink out of sight.

Most obstacles melt away when we make up our minds to walk boldly through them.

Give us grace and strength to forbear and to persevere. Give us courage and gaiety and the quiet mind, spare to us our friends, soften to us our enemies.

I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life—and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.

Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.

You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.

Not in the clamor of the crowded street, not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat.

Far better it is to dare might things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they in the gray twilight that knows nor victory nor defeat.

Victory is sweetest when you've known defeat.

You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

Defeat is a state of mind. You are defeated only when you accept defeat, and assume the hopeless mindset of a defeated person.

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.

So it is more useful to watch a man in time of peril, and in adversity to discern what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask it torn off, reality remains.