The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

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

Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know.

People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.

It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

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

Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.

Shallow men believe in luck.

Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Adopt the pace of nature:
her secret is patience.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

You cannot do a kindness too soon,
for you never know how soon it will be too late.

For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.

Every man I meet is my superior in some way and In that I learn from him.

Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.

Sorrow looks back,
Worry looks around,
Faith looks up.

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.

Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Life is a journey, not a destination.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.

Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.

Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.

Make the most of yourself....
for that is all there is of you.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

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. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.