Do the thing and you will have the power.

The wise through excess of wisdom is made a fool.

We acquire the strength we have overcome.

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, faith looks up.

This world belongs to the energetic.

Thought is the seed of action.

Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self.

There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.

Even in the mud and scum of things, something always, always sings.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

But genius looks forward. The eyes of men are set in his forehead, not in his hindhead. Man hopes. Genius creates.

Each man has his own vocation; his talent is his call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him.

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker with no past at my back.

The invariable mark of a dream is to see it come true.

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation: but of the adopted talent of another, you gave only an extemporaneous, half possession. 

Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object.

It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are. His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether they second him or not.

Each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody.

Every burned book enlightens the world.

Each of us sees in others what we carry in our own hearts.

The reality is more excellent than the report.

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.

Money often costs too much.

Violence is not power, but the absence of power.

Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

Go put your creed into the deed, nor speak with double tongue.

Everything in the universe goes by indirection. There are no straight lines.

Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

Public opinion, I am sorry to say, will bear a great deal of nonsense. There is scarcely any absurdity so gross, whether in religion, politics, science or manners, which it will not bear.

Shall we then judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely.

For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius the stern friend.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.

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

Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Heroism feels and never reasons and therefore is always right.

The good are befriended even by weakness and defect. As no man had ever a point of pride that was not injurious to him, so no man had ever a defect that was not somewhere made useful to him. 

Every man in his lifetime needs to thank his faults. 

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

For every thing you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something else.

The meaning of good and bad, of better and worse, is simply helping or hurting.

Self-trust is the first secret of success.

Self-command is the main elegance.

Self-reliance, the height and perfection of man, is reliance on God.

None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.