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.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious; what I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied.

Any fool can know. The point is to understand.

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.

Forgive but do not forget, or you will be hurt again. Forgiving changes the perspectives, forgetting loses the lesson.

If you don’t know, the thing to do is not to get scared, but to learn.

I have to face life with a newly found passion. I must rediscover the irresistible will to learn, to live and to love.

If you want a new idea, read an old book.

This is the law: The purpose of fighting is to win. There is no possible victory in defense. The sword is more important than the shield and skill is more important than either. The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

Don’t be ‘a writer’. Be writing.

I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't.

Do not hire a man who does your work for money but him who does it for love of it.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

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

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

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

Those who enjoy responsibility usually get it; those who merely enjoy exercising authority usually lose it.

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

Next to the assumption of power is the responsibility of relinquishing it.

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

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.

You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible.