Virtue is a state of war, and to live in it we have always to combat with ourselves.

You will be as much value to others as you have been to yourself.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.

You don't need another person, place or thing to make you whole. God already did that. Your job is to know it.

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self.

I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the “oughtness” that forever confronts him.

Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

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

If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh unless, since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience the injustice of our fellows.

Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.

We ought not to let either our joy at their faults or our grief at their success be idle, but in either case we ought to reflect, how we may become better than them by avoiding their errors, and by imitating their virtues not come short of them.