“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”

Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

Someone who thinks the world is always cheating him is right. He is missing that wonderful feeling of trust in someone or something.

We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.

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

The quality of ideas seems to play a minor role in mass movement leadership. What counts is the arrogant gesture, the complete disregard of the opinion of others, the singlehanded defiance of the world.

All leaders strive to turn their followers into children.

Death has but one terror, that it has no tomorrow.

The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody.

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people’s business.

The trouble is not chiefly that our universities are unfit for students but that many present-day students are unfit for universities.

Those who would sacrifice a generation to realize an ideal are the enemies of mankind.

Far more critical than what we know or what we don’t know is what we don’t want to know.

For many people, an excuse is better than an achievement because an achievement, no matter how great, leaves you having to prove yourself again in the future; but an excuse can last for life.

To learn you need a certain degree of confidence, not too much and not too little. If you have too little confidence, you will think you can’t learn. If you have too much, you will think you don’t have to learn.

The basic test of freedom is perhaps less in what we are free to do than in what we are free not to do.

Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure, and the song of birds.

For one person who is blessed with the power of invention, many will always be found who have the capacity of applying principles.

Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious, O’er a’ the ills o’ life victorious.

There is literally nothing that I ever asked to do, that I asked the blessed Creator to help me to do, that I have not been able to accomplish.

Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.

Ills are many, blessings few, but dreams tonight will shelter you.

I am content; that is a blessing greater than riches; and he to whom that is given need ask no more.

Music, such music, is a sufficient gift. Why ask for happiness; why hope not to grieve? It is enough, it is to be blessed enough, to live from day to day and to hear such music-not too much, or the soul could not sustain it-from time to time.