“People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.”

Everything comes too late for those who only wait.

Be yourself and think for yourself, and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the inclusions forced upon you by those who have a personal interest in keeping you in ignorance.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

Reason: The arithmetic of the emotions.

We will not be dictated to by men with less intelligence, energy, initiative and ambition than we ourselves possess.

What we call God’s justice is only man’s idea of what he would do if he were God.

If you have health, you probably will be happy, and if you have health and happiness, you have all the wealth you need, even if it is not all you want.

He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.

If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

The secret of success is this: there is no secret of success.

The man who knows it can’t be done counts the risk, not the reward.

Formal religion was organized for slaves: it offered them consolation which earth did not provide.

All success consists in this: You are doing something for somebody – benefiting humanity – and the feeling of success comes from the consciousness of this.

Faith is the effort to believe what your common sense tells you is not true.

Of all the mental and physical polluters of life, nothing exercises such a poisonous effect as fear.

Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it.

The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day.

The fish once caught, new bait will hardly bite.

Do not wait to strike till the iron is hot; but make it hot by striking.

Never look backwards or you’ll fall down the stairs.

The brain may take advice, but not the heart.

The only thing that it is advisable to know in any language is the numerals; and even there, you can do a lot with the fingers.

Advice is seldom welcome. Those who need it most, like it least.

It takes two flints to make a fire.