There is no chance, no fate, no destiny that can circumvent, or hinder, or control a firm resolve of a determined soul.
To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.
When we place blame, we give away our power.
Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
Hunker down.
Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.
A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner.
The dove is my emblem... . I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it... . I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill.
The first and greatest commandment is, Don't let them scare you.
But we can not avoid conflict, conflict with society, other individuals and with oneself. Conflicts may be the sources of defeat, lost life and a limitation of our potentiality but they may also lead to greater depth of living and the birth of more far-reaching unities, which flourish in the tensions that engender them.
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in ; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day ; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished by how much the old man had learned in 7 years.
Find and use your passion, and you'll have a great career. Don't do it, you won't. It's as simple as that.
Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass!
A wise man makes his own decisions , an ignorant man follows the public opinion.
Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and true progress.
Happiness is a state of activity.
To be a champion, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.
Personal leadership is not a singular experience. It is, rather, the ongoing process of keeping your vision and values before you and aligning your life to be congruent with those most important things.
The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word coeur, meaning ''heart''. Thus just as one's heart, by pumping blood to one's arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values whither away into mere facsimiles of virtue.
Discontent is the source of all trouble, but also of all progress, in individuals and nations.
Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous, you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Tell me and I forget , show me and I remember , involve me and I understand.
The several tribes of indians inhabiting the regions of the upper missouri, and of whom I spoke in my last letter, are undoubtedly the finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on the continent.
One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.
For a person to build a rich and rewarding life for himself there are certain qualities and bits of knowledge that he needs to acquire. There are also things, harmful attitudes, superstitions, and emotions that he needs to chip away. A person needs to chip away everything that doesn't look like the person he or she most wants to become.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished. Duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth.
Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting ; in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
Remove failure as an option.
Only in his own way and not in any other can the one who strives perfect himself. He who lays hold of the rung of his companion and lets go of his own rung, through him neither the one nor the other will be realized.
Look at every situation as if you were in the future and you were looking back on it.
Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, " What's in it for me ? ".
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
If I can line up the people who, back through the ages, have gone at life in ways I greatly admire, then I can feel their strength supporting me, all their standards and values pointing the way in which I am to go.
Be Here Now.
Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him.
A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you have n't truly decided.
He who hesitates is lost !
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
The question should be, is it worth trying to do, not can it be done.
Results ? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results ! If I find ways something won't work, I haven't failed
Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a revelation.
First say to yourself what you would be , and then do what you have to do.
It is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich.
Success is achieved by those who try and keep trying with a positive mental attitude.
Wisdom is not like money to be tied up and hidden.
Pep without purpose is piffle.
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
Your neighbor's vision is as true for him as your own vision is true for you.
No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they kept only one. They promised to take our land, and they did.
A man should have any number of little aims about which he should be conscious and for which he should have names, but he should have neither name for, nor consciousness concerning, the main aim of his life.
Mistakes are a part of being human. Appreciate your mistakes for what they are precious life lessons that can only be learned the hard way. Unless it's a fatal mistake, which, at least, others can learn from.
Believe in yourself.
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others. I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent.
Sometimes things become possible if we want them bad enough.
The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.
Difficulties, by bracing the mind to overcome them, assist cheerfulness, as exercise assists digestion.
There are no mistakes, save one, the failure to learn from a mistake.
Life does not happen to us, it happens from us.
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says Leave no stone unturned.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals - that is, goals that do not inspire them.
Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.
Keep in mind that you are always saying "no" to something. If it isn't to the apparent, urgent things in your life, it is probably to the most fundamental, highly important things. Even when the urgent is good, the good can keep you from your best, keep you from your unique contribution, if you let it.
We are what our thoughts have made us, so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live, they travel far.
Don't let your fears stand in the way of your dreams !
You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.
The glue that holds all relationships together -- including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.
It's a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best. You very often get it.
Success is never found. Failure is never fatal. Courage is the only thing.
is a choice to focus one's being in a certain way, to bring one's faith, commitment, creativity, and love into coordination with a particular value and purpose.
What we do not see, what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
Whatever is at the center of our life will be the source of our security, guidance, wisdom, and power.
One who seeks no friends is his own enemy.
Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moments you reject all help, are you free. Fear is death, fear is sin, fear is hell, fear is unrighteousness, and fear is wrong life.
Practice hope. As hopefulness becomes a habit, you can achieve a permanently happy spirit.
If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.
Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.
Wherever there is danger, there lurks opportunity ; whenever there is opportunity, there lurks danger. The two are inseparable. They go together.
People who exercise their embryonic freedom day after day, little by little, expand that freedom. People who do not will find that it withers until they are literally 'being lived'. They are acting out scripts written by parents, associates and society.
For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice. No paper currency, no promises to pay, but the gold of real service.
Every hand does its part to hold up the world. Every healthy individual guides his life by a selected motive which takes precedence over all the others. He is the man who maintains his integrity in the midst of change, his individuality in the face of external pressures to conform.
Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it.
I light my candle from their torches.
So many fail because they don't get started -- they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.
Whenever your present situation, I assure you that you are not your habits. You can replace old patterns of self-defeating behavior with new patterns, new habits of the effectiveness, happiness, and trust-based relationships.