“Genius is the ability to act rightly without precedent – the power to do the right thing the first time.”

In order to have friends, you must first be one.

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.