Inspirational Quotes

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.

You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

If you can dream it, you can do it.

Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?

Leap, and the net will appear.

I can, therefore I am.

I was motivated to be different in part, because I was different.

It's always too early to quit.

Know or listen to those who know.

Only the educated are free.

Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.

Quality is not an act, it is a habit.

Set your sights high, the higher the better. Expect the most wonderful things to happen, not in the future but right now. Realize that nothing is too good. Allow absolutely nothing to hamper you or hold you up in any way.

The dog that trots about finds a bone.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

The ultimate aim of the ego is not to see something, but to be something.

There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.

One may miss the mark by aiming too high as too low.

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.

Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later.

Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.

Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail.

Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.

Crave for a thing, you will get it. Renounce the craving, the object will follow you by itself.

Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.

Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.

Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward.

Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.

Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

If you're insincere, it's manipulative.

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 encumbered with your old nonsense.

The only way around is through.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.

I feel that the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.

You've got to be before you can do, and do before you can have.

The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore.

Everyone who got where he is has had to begin where he was.

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.

A non-doer is very often a critic-that is, someone who sits back and watches doers, and then waxes philosophically about how the doers are doing. It's easy to be a critic, but being a doer requires effort, risk, and change.

Do not be desirous of having things done quickly. Do not look at small advantages. Desire to have things done quickly prevents their being done thoroughly. Looking at small advantages prevents great affairs from being accomplished.

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.

Remember, you can earn more money, but when time is spent is gone forever.

It's your aptitude, not just your attitude that determines your ultimate altitude.

We will either find a way, or make one.

The best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.

Man is always more than he can know of himself; consequently, his accomplishments, time and again, will come as a surprise to him.

I am always doing things I can't do, that's how I get to do them.

The measure of a man is the way he bears up under misfortune.

All of us perform better and more willingly when we know why we're doing what we have been told or asked to do.

The average estimate themselves by what they do, the above average by what they are.

Everybody says they want to be free. Take the train off the tracks and it's free - but it can't go anywhere.

God put me on Earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I'm so far behind I will never die!

If you don't climb the mountain, you can't view the plain.

The harder you fall, the higher you bounce.

The man who wakes up and finds himself famous hasn't been asleep.

To go beyond is as bad as to fall short.

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

To reach a great height a person needs to have great depth.

This became a credo of mine . . . attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.

Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do, he will never do all that he can.

Hell, there are no rules here , we're trying to accomplish something.

You can finish school, and even make it easy - but you never finish your education, and it's seldom easy.

If we are striving, if we are working, if we are trying, to the best of our ability, to improve day by day, then we are in the line of our duty.

when in reality they are juvenile entertainment for immature and insecure people.

We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys.

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.

Many marriages would be better if the husband and wife clearly understood that they're on the same side.

You don't drown by falling in water; you only drown if you stay there.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

The more you express gratitude for what you have the more you will have to express gratitude for.

Only if you reach the boundary will the boundary recede before you. And if you don't, if you confine your efforts, the boundary will shrink to accommodate itself to your efforts. And you can only expand your capacities by working to the very limit.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

When you give a man a dole you deny him his dignity, and when you deny him his dignity you rob him his destiny.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Personal development is your springboard to personal excellence. Ongoing, continuous, non-stop personal development literally assures you that there is no limit to what you can accomplish.

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.

It's not the situation, but whether we react (negative) or respond (positive) to the situation that's important.

No bed is big enough to hold three.

Food offered without affection is like food offered to the dead.

Without loving acts, loving words are meaningless.

It is the passion that is in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

I've been married to you for twenty years, haven't I?

For two people to please one another they must be very nearly alike, so that they may understand each other, and slightly different, so that they may have something to understand in each other.

If you have respect and consideration for one another, you'll make it.

No man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people.

The sound of a kiss is not so loud as that of a cannon, but its echo lasts a great deal longer.

The value of compassion cannot be overemphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be born by an individual than to know no one cares or understands.

Don't wait until you're a man to be great. Be a great boy.

Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I'll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.

Put all your eggs in one basket and watch that basket.

The price of greatness is responsibility.

Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.

Every great man is unique.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Let us consider the nature of true greatness in men. The people who can catch hold of men's minds and feelings and inspire them to do things bigger than themselves are the people who are remembered in history. . . . those who stir feelings and imagination and make men struggle toward perfection.

Creativity means believing you have greatness.

There are no great men, only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.

Greatness does not approach him who is forever looking down.

No great man ever complains of want of opportunity.

Great men are true men, the men in whom nature has succeeded. They are not extraordinary - they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.

Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions.

In our society those who are in reality superior in intelligence can be accepted by their fellows only if they pretend they are not.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

Well, I wouldn't say that I was in the great class, but I had a great time while I was trying to be great.

I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary.

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

Do not confuse notoriety and fame with greatness. . . . For you see, greatness is a measure of one's spirit, not a result of one's rank in human affairs.

True greatness is the most ready to recognize and most willing to obey those simple outward laws which have been sanctioned by the experience of mankind.

A great man will not trample upon a worm, nor sneak to an emperor.

There would be no great ones if there were no little ones.

A great man's greatest good luck is to die at the right time.

The man who is anybody and who does anything is surely going to be criticized, vilified, and misunderstood. This is a part of the penalty for greatness, and every great man understands it; and understands, too, that it is no proof of greatness. The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure contumely without resentment.

Greatness of name in the father oft-times overwhelms the son; they stand too near one another. The shadow kills the growth: so much, that we see the grandchild come more and oftener to be heir of the first.

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

I'd rather be a great bad poet than a good bad poet.

So when a great man dies For years beyond our ken The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men.

If we are to be really great people, we must strive in good faith to play a great part in the world. We cannot avoid meeting great issues. All that we can determine for ourselves is whether we shall meet them well or ill.

Every great man is always being helped by everybody, for his gift is to get good out of all things and all persons.

Some things have not changed since the dawn of history, and bid fair to last out time itself. One of these things is the capacity for greatness in man his capacity for being often the master of the event and sometimes even more the changer of the course of history itself. This capacity for greatness is a very precious gift, and we are under a danger in our day of stifling it.

Excellence is not a destination; it is a continuous journey that never ends.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.

Great crisis produce great men and great deeds of courage.

He who reigns within himself and rules his passions, desires, and fears is more than a king.

Only in growth, reform and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.

It is truly said: It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide what to do.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

Strong men can always afford to be gentle. Only the weak are intent on giving as good as they get.

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Never letting the competition define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye.

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting, but never hit soft.

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, and nothing is so gentle as true strength.

What the lion cannot manage to do the fox can.

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.

The burden is equal to the horse's strength.

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence but it comes from within.

Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.

When you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.

It is true that we shall not be able to reach perfection, but in our struggle toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties with which we have been gifted to the best possible account.

Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.

Patience and time do more than strength or passion.

By nature we have no defect that could not become a strength, no strength that could not become a defect.

He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.

If there were no other virtues in fasting but gaining strength of character, that alone would be sufficient justification for its universal acceptance.

There is nothing so strong as gentleness, and nothing so gentle as strength.

I do not attach much importance to America 's bombs. I attach importance to her great vitality and integrity. The strength of America is deeper and more significant than her financial power.

In Mr. Nixon's book, God is indeed on the side of the big battalions.

God does not take away trials or carry us over them, but strengthens us through them.

This is the law of the Yukon , that only the strong shall thrive; that surely the weak shall perish, and only the fit survive.

Above all challenge yourself. You may well surprise yourself at what strengths you have, what you can accomplish.

None of us can hope to get anywhere without character, moral courage and the spiritual strength to accept responsibility.

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.

No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves.

When I've heard all I need to make a decision, I don't take a vote. I make a decision.

It is not because things are different that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

A leader, once convinced that a particular course of action is the right one, must....be undaunted when the going gets tough.

It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.

Men talk as if victory were something fortunate. Work is victory.

The most dangerous moment comes with victory.

The people who remained victorious were less like conquerors than conquered.

Everyone who's ever taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.

The will to conquer is the first condition of victory.

One may know how to gain a victory, and know not how to use it.

Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

To the girls that gave me a hard time in high school. I want to say thank you. This is a victory for all the nerds out there.

Victory is a political fiction.

The victory of endurance born.

The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories, and a portent of the fate awaiting the Nazi tyranny.

Victory is the beautiful, bright-colored flower. Transport is the stem without which it could never have blossomed.

. . . You ask, What is our policy? I will say; It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.

It is the fight alone that pleases us, not the victory.

Don't limit investing to the financial world. Invest something of yourself, and you will be richly rewarded.

m so optimistic I'd go after Moby Dick in a row boat and take the tartar sauce with me.

If men would consider not so much wherein they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world.

He who sings frightens away his ills.

Of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more of it remains.

Human felicity is produced not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day.

Do it this very moment! Don't put it off, don't wait! There's no use in doing a kindness If you do it a day too late.

Were it not better to forget Than to remember and regret

Then wilt thou not be loath To leave this Paradise , but shalt possess A Paradise within thee, happier far.

The man who first brought ruin upon the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesses and amusements.

Dreams are extremely important. You can't do it unless you imagine it.

A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further then a great idea that inspires no one.

It's the independent American spirit that built this country - hard-working entrepreneurs who believe in the reality of their dreams.

We were always dreaming of how it was going to be.

A civilization is as great as its dreams, and its dreams are dreamt by artists.

No dream comes true until you wake up and go to work.

No dreamer is ever too small; no dream is ever too big.

The world is full of Kings and Queens , who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.

We mustn't let our passions destroy our dreams.

Your dreams come true when you act to turn them into realities.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.

Dreaming men are haunted men.

Dreams have but one owner at a time. That is why dreamers are lonely.

Dreams that do come true can be as unsettling as those that don't.

We do not really feel grateful toward those who make our dreams come true; they ruin our dreams.

Many have no happier moments than those that they pass in solitude, abandoned to their own imagination, which sometimes puts scepters in their hands or miters on their heads, shifts the scene of pleasure with endless variety, bids all the forms of beauty sparkle before them, and gluts them with every change of visionary luxury.

It may be that those who do most, dream most.

Dream tonight of peacock tails, Diamond fields and spouter whales. Ills are many, blessing few, But dreams tonight will shelter you.

An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.

The ninety and nine are with dreams, content but the hope of the world made new, is the hundredth man who is grimly bent on making those dreams come true.

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their grey visions they obtain glimpses of eternity.

You eat, in dreams, the custard of the day.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil.

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities.

When the legends die, the dreams end; there is no more greatness.

How many of our daydreams would darken into nightmares, were there a danger of their coming true!

Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.

My eyes are an ocean in which my dreams are reflected.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet, Tread softly because you tread on n dreams.

However vague they are, dreams have a way of concealing themselves and leave us no peace until they are translated into reality, like seeds germinating underground, sure to sprout in their search for the sunlight.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

in any situation, any organization. Such an individual is yeast that can leaven an entire loaf. It requires vision, initiative, patience, respect, persistence, courage, and faith to be a transforming leader.

A boss creates fear, a leader confidence. A boss fixes blame, a leader corrects mistakes. A boss knows all, a leader asks questions. A boss makes work drudgery, a leader makes it interesting. A boss is interested in himself or herself, a leader is interested in the group.

One of the true tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self-esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish.

A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the equality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.

You manage things; you lead people.

If I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!

It is very comforting to believe that leaders who do terrible things are, in fact, mad. That way, all we have to do is make sure we don't put psychotics in high places and we've got the problem solved.

An army of deer would be more formidable commanded by a lion, than an army of lions commanded by a stag.

Entrepreneurs are the forgotten heroes of America .

Eagles don't flock - you have to find them one at a time.

My responsibility, our responsibility as lucky Americans, is to try to give back to this country as much as it has given us, as we continue our American journey together.

Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.

The marksman hitteth the target partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The boatsman reached the landing partly by pulling, partly by letting go.

The man whose authority is recent is always stern.

Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.

Grow antennae, not horns.

It's great to work with somebody who wants to do things differently.

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.

The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born-that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That's nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.

In handling men, there are three feelings that a man must not possess - fear, dislike and contempt. If he is afraid of men he cannot handle them. Neither can he influence them in his favor if he dislikes or scorns them. He must neither cringe nor sneer. He must have both self-respect and respect for others.

There are three essentials to leadership: humility, clarity and courage.

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod.

The nation will find it very hard to look up to the leaders who are keeping their ears to the ground.

There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hope soon to be swept away.

-- that is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision to high sights, the raising of a person's performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.

The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.

You do not lead by hitting people over the head, that's assault, not leadership.

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly, and they will show themselves great.

The common characteristics of people make a community possible, but it is their uncommon qualities that make it better.

A salesman, like the storage battery in your car, is constantly discharging energy. Unless he is recharged at frequent intervals he soon runs dry. This is one of the greatest responsibilities of sales leadership.

What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have a vision. It's got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can't blow an uncertain trumpet.

The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist.

Respect a man, he will do the more.

Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together.

The only real training for leadership is leadership.

No two men can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

You can send a message around the world in one-fifth of a second, yet it may take years for it to get from the outside of a man's head to the inside.

We did it ourselves.

Rule a kingdom as though you were cooking a small fish, don't overdo it.

There are no dumb questions, only dumb answers.

To command is to serve, nothing more and nothing less.

Leadership is influence.

Leadership is an action, not a position.

A leader is a dealer in hope.

One measure of leadership is the caliber of people who choose to follow you.

No man is fit to command another that cannot command himself.

The same ambition can destroy or save, And makes a patriot as it makes a knave.

People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. The leader leads, and the boss drives.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

To lead in the 21st century-to take soldiers, sailors, and airmen into battle, you will be required to have both character and competence.

He who reads is never alone.

Certainly a leader needs a clear vision of the organization and where it is going, but a vision is of little value unless it is shared in a way so as to generate enthusiasm and commitment. Leadership and communication are inseparable.

Consensus is the negation of leadership.

It is much safer to obey, than to govern.

A President either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a single moment.

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

Education is the mother of leadership.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them every day begin the task anew.

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

Guts are a combination of confidence, courage, conviction, strength of character, stick-to-itiveness, pugnaciousness, backbone, and intestinal fortitude. They are mandatory for anyone who wants to get to and stay at the top.

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

Never let defeat have the last word.

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

Nobody remembers who came in second.

Everybody is born with an equal chance to become just as unequal as he or she possibly can.

There are only two places in this league: first place and no place.

We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat.

It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up.

Regardless of what you do put in, every game boils down to doing the things you do best and doing them over and over again.

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged by only one thing - the result.

And the trouble with me is that my ego just can't accept a loss. I suppose that if I were more perfectly adjusted, I would toss off defeat, but my name is on this ball club. Thirty-six men publicly reflect me and reflect on me, and it's a matter of my pride.

Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.

My serve was there, everything was just clicking. Those are the days you dream about, especially in a final.

There are 100 men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.

A nail is driven out by another nail. Habit is overcome by habit.

First we form habits, then they form us. Conquer your bad habits or they will conquer you.

Power is the faculty or capacity to act, the strength and potency to accomplish something. It is the vital energy to make choices and decisions. It also includes the capacity to overcome deeply embedded habits and to cultivate higher, more effective ones.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.

It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away.

Good habits result from resisting temptation.

As a twig is bent the tree inclines.

A man's fortune has its form given to it by his habits.

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed, easy to get into, but hard to get out of.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting in a particular way.

What a curious phenomenon it is that you can get men to die for the liberty of the world who will not make the little sacrifice that is needed to free themselves from their own individual bondage.

All habits gather by unseen degrees , As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

Any act often repeated soon forms a habit; and habit allowed, steadily gains in strength. At first it may be but as the spider's web, easily broken through, but if not resisted it soon binds us with chains of steel.

Every woman should eat for the long run so she can manage the short stops of crisis.

The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.

Small habits well pursued betimes May reach the dignity of crimes.

Habits change into character.

A large part of virtue consists in good habits.

How use doth breed a habit in a man!

The secret of the whole matter is that a habit is not the mere tendency to repeat a certain act, nor is it established by the mere repetition of the act. Habit is a fixed tendency to react or respond in a certain way to a given stimulus; and the formation of habit always involves the two elements, the stimulus and the response or reaction. The indolent lad goes to school not in response to any stimulus in the school itself, but to the pressure of his father's will; when that stimulus is absent, the reaction as a matter of course does not occur.

Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.

Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.

Action on the move creates its own route, creates to a very great extent the conditions under which it is to be fulfilled and thus baffles all calculation.

Divide each difficulty into as many parts as necessary to resolve it.

The highest form of ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about.

Not to know is bad, not to wish to know is worse.

The old believe everything; the middle aged suspect everything, the young know everything.

It is nothing for one to know something unless another knows you know it.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, but that they know so many things that ain't so.

Not to know is bad; not to wish to know is worse.

You can out distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.

I am what I am and I have the need to be.

If you want to be somebody, somebody really special, be yourself.

Men have a tendency to believe what they least understand.

Teachers open the door, but you enter by yourself.

The more you know, the less you need to show.

There has been an alarming increase in the number of things you know nothing about.

All men by nature desire to know.

Resolve to be thyself: and know that he - Who finds himself loses his misery.

It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient.

Many a man who has known himself at ten forgets himself utterly between ten and thirty.

One secures the gold of the spirit when he finds himself.

There are lots of things that you can brush under the carpet about yourself until you're faced with somebody whose needs won't be put off.

The more a man knows, the more he forgives.

A man does not know what he is saying until he knows what he is not saying.

One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.

You already know enough to go to hell.

He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men's heads.

Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true.

Timidity is mistrust of self, and proceeds not from modesty but from conceit. A man is timid because he is afraid of not appearing to his best advantage.

and too often leads to a self-estimate which will subsist in the absence of that fruit by which alone the quality of the tree is made evident.

Know what you want. . . . Become your real self.

You have to know what's important and what's unimportant, for you.

He knows the universe and does not know himself.

To know is nothing at all; to imagine is everything.

Thoroughly to know oneself, is above all art, for it is the highest art.

He who repeats what he does not understand is no better than an ass that is loaded with books.

What is not fully understood is not possessed.

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after.

This statement is not accurate. Self is created, not found.

Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.

Getting in touch with your true self must be your first priority.

The idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.

It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Be that self which one truly is.

Questions are the creative acts of intelligence.

It is easier to deceive yourself, and to do so unperceived, than to deceive another.

We work so consistently to disguise ourselves to others that we end by being disguised to ourselves.

What makes us like new acquaintances is not so much any weariness of our old ones, or the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being sufficiently admired by those who know us too well, and the hope of being more so by those who do not know so much of us.

He is strong who conquers others ; He who conquers himself is mighty.

He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.

To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves, from ourselves.

An erudite fool is a greater fool than an ignorant fool.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.