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.

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

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

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

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

Don’t be ‘a writer’. Be writing.

It is very important to know who you are. To make decisions. To show who you are.

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.

I have brought myself, by long meditation, to the conviction that a human being with settled purpose must accomplish it, and that nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment.

First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.

Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so act toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

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.

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.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease to exist at death.

Most men die at 27, we just bury them at 72.

The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.