“Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.”

Commit a child to the care of a worthless, ignorant woman, and no culture in after-life will remedy the evil you have done.

Wisdom and understanding can only become the possession of individual men by travelling the old road of observation, attention, perseverance, and industry.

The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honor. If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.

The work of many of the greatest men, inspired by duty, has been done amidst suffering and trial and difficulty. They have struggled against the tide, and reached the shore exhausted.

Fortune has often been blamed for her blindness; but fortune is not so blind as men are. Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.

Politeness goes far, yet costs nothing.

Obedience, submission, discipline, courage–these are among the characteristics which make a man.

Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.

The duty of helping one’s self in the highest sense involves the helping of one’s neighbors.

Self-respect is the noblest garment with which a man can clothe himself, the most elevating feeling with which the mind can be inspired.

The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.

Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us.

National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice.

The brave man is an inspiration to the weak, and compels them, as it were, to follow him.

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.

Any number of depraved units cannot form a great nation.

You can either be angry for what you don’t have or thankful for what you do have. Do your best and God will do the rest.

Optimism is my best defense.

I think the best thing a parent can do, when raising a child, is simply get out of their way.

Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work.

She loved me coming and going, at my worst and at my best. She had a bottomless well of love for me.

I think it’s really important to have a life outside of this [movie] business and just be the best person you can be.

You can have the best vaccines for a woman or her child, but if you can’t get her to come and get them then they won’t work.

I accept my body. I accept how I am and make the best of what I am given.