While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the induction of a new order of things.

If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap, whence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

Without properly kept accounts it is impossible to maintain truth in its pristine purity.

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.

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.

When you don't come from struggle, gaining appreciation is a quality that's difficult to come by.

The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships.

The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.

There is no education like adversity.

Surely what a man does when he is in an uncomfortable situation is the best evidence for the sort of man he is.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.

The obstacle in the path becomes that path. Never forget, within every obstacle is an opportunity to improve our condition.

The less you respond to negative people, the positive your life will become.

Do you feel gloomy? Lift your eyes. Stand on your feet. Say a few words of appreciation and love to the lord. Be positive.

If you can allow yourself to trust those little movements round your gut that tell you when something is interesting or exciting, they will tell you where to go.

We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.

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

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.

It doesn't matter how smart you are unless you stop and think.

Think of what you have rather than of what you lack. Of the things you have, select the best and then reflect how eagerly you would have sought them if you did not have them.

I have no desire to suffer twice, in reality and then in retrospect.

There is as much greatness of mind in acknowledging a good turn, as in doing it.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

You must try to observe yourself more and more objectively, to look at everything in yourself as though another person.