“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, desire.”

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.

Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.

If things do not turn out as we wish, we should wish for them as they turn out.

Nature does nothing uselessly.

Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

Wise men speak when they have something to say, fools speak because they have to say something.

It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.

Philosophy can make people sick.

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

We make war that we may live in peace.

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.

The energy of the mind is the essence of life.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

God works in his elect in two ways: inwardly, by his Spirit; outwardly, by his Word.

I take the ball, I go wide, I cross, I shoot, but when the moment beckons, I am ready to make the difference.

If you knew Jesus was coming tomorrow, what would you do today? Then do it!

I must lose myself in action, lest I wither in despair.

Theirs is not to make reply: Theirs is not to reason why: Theirs is but to do and die.

I know how bad Albany is. I know it better than most. I understand why people are angry. I’m angry. The question is going to be, how do you change Albany, what is the plan for change, and then how do you actually get it done?

Our chief defect is that we are more given to talking about things than to doing them.

Time is not measured by the passing of years but by what one does, what one feels, and what one achieves.