“The first thing you have to know is yourself. A man who knows himself can step outside himself and watch his own reactions like an observer.”

I have no faith in political arithmetic.

Never complain of that of which it is at all times in your power to rid yourself.

The real and effectual discipline which is exercised over a workman is that of his customers. It is the fear of losing their employment which restrains his frauds and corrects his negligence.

No complaint is more common than that of a scarcity of money.

Men, like animals, naturally multiply in proportion to the means of their subsistence.

Labour was the first price, the original purchase – money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased.

Justice, however, never was in reality administered gratis in any country. Lawyers and attornies, at least, must always be paid by the parties; and, if they were not, they would perform their duty still worse than they actually perform it.

Mercantile jealousy is excited, and both inflames, and is itself inflamed, by the violence of national animosity.

Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

It is the natural effect of improvement, however, to diminish gradually the real price of almost all manufactures.

Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely; or to be that thing which is the natural and proper object of love.

The rate of profit is naturally low in rich and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

Nothing but the most exemplary morals can give dignity to a man of small fortune.

The learned ignore the evidence of their senses to preserve the coherence of the ideas of their imagination.

Wonder and not any expectation of advantage from its discoveries, is the first principle which prompts mankind to the study of Philosophy, of that science which pretends to lay open the concealed connections that unite the various appearances of nature.

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.

We will be humble as we are obedient, and as obedient as we are humble.

Did you ever think how a bit of land shows the character of the owner?

What you leave in your children, is more important than what you leave to them.

It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn’t get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities.

God will not protect you from anything that will make you more like Jesus.

I never wanted to be on any billionaires list. I never define myself by net worth. I always try to define myself by my values.

Character supersedes talent. Don’t allow your talent to take you where your character can’t sustain you.