“Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.”

When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, your’re the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying.

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

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.

You become what you think about all day long.

Of all the ways to lose a person, death is the kindest.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

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

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

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

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

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

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.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

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.

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

If you come across fear, stare it in its eyes. Face it and you will notice that fear fades away.

Get your assets working for you so that your “ass” isn’t working for someone else.

In the valley of sorrow, spread your wings.

It doesn’t really matter how fast you’re going if you’re heading in the wrong direction.

Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.

Improve relationships with others by assuming that they can hear everything you say about them.

You have to water the flowers you want to grow.