“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”

Peace and friendship with all mankind is our wisest policy, and I wish we may be permitted to pursue it.

I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves ; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion.

An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

Take things always by their smooth handle.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

Never trouble another with what you can do yourself.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and opressions of the body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.

If you want something you’ve never had, You must be willing to do something you’ve never done.

When angry, count 10. before you speak; if very angry, 100.

Let us save what remains: not by vaults and locks which fence them from the public eye and use in consigning them to the waste of time, but by such a multiplication of copies, as shall place them beyond the reach of accident.

Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Think as you please, and so let others, and you will have no disputes.

I’ve never been particularly ambitious. I’m driven by the moment.

My ambition is always to get better and better.

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.

I am always motivated. I am ambitious and I want to always improve.

Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.

Fears, even the most basic ones, can totally destroy our ambitions. Fear, if left unchecked, can destroy our lives. Fear is one of the many enemies lurking inside us.

Success is based on imagination plus ambition and the will to work.