We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

In this age, the man who dares to think for himself and to act independently does a service to his race.

Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.

Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristics in men.

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure.

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.

When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.

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.

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

Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it; he that fears not, gives advantage to the danger.

When you are enthusiastic about what you do, you feel this positive energy. It’s very simple.

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.

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.

I have a deeply hidden and inarticulate desire for something beyond the daily life.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he as imagined, he will meet with success unexpectedly in common hours.

The indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection, even though it consist in nothing more than in the pounding of an old piano, is what alone gives a meaning to our life on this unavailing star.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.

None are more taken in by flattery than the proud, who wish to be the first and are not.

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.

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of everything else to which he is justly entitled.

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within more than the luster of the firmament of bards and sages.

It is of particular value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship.

Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own.

There is only one success—to be able to spend your life in your own way.

To establish true self-esteem, we must concentrate on our successes and forget about the failures and the negatives in our lives.

If you compromise your own conscience, you will weaken your conscience. Soon your conscience will fail to guide you and you never will have real wealth based on peace of mind.

The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.

When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

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

There is nothing in the world that empowers a human being to overcome external difficulties or internal hardships so much as the awareness that one has a task in life.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.

I just want God’s will. And He’s allowed to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promise land . . . So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.