The quote database

Success in life is becoming what you want to be.

Desire is possibility seeking expression, or function seeking performance.

Extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes.

The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.

You can do what you want to do, and it is your right and privilege to follow the business or avocation which will be most congenial and pleasant.

Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little.

There are those who have gone, for want of this self-knowledge, strangely out of their way, and others who have never found it.

It is the pang of parting, the unloosing our grasp, the breaking asunder some strong tie, the leaving some cherished purpose unfulfilled, that creates the repugnance to go

The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life.

If we would promise we must put ourselves in a position to perform our promise.

These, then, are my last words to you: Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

Ideal aspirations are not enough, when uncombined with pluck and will.

If you only care enough for a result, you will almost certainly attain it.

The normal opener of deeper and deeper levels of energy is the will.

Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.

There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.

Thus worthy work carries with it the hope of pleasure in rest, the hope of the pleasure in our using what it makes, and the hope of pleasure in our daily creative skill.

Nature does not give us our livelihood gratis; we must win it by toil of some sort or degree.

But a man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body.

With such aids and an honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country the manifold duties devolved upon me.

By holding the representative responsible only to the people, and exempting him from all other influences, we elevate the character of the constituent and quicken his sense of responsibility to his country.