The quote database

Every great cause is born from repeated failures and from imperfect achievements.

Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in every instance they have completely failed.

To the hopes of the hostile, the fears of the timid, and the doubts of the anxious actual experience has given the conclusive reply.

Overlooking partial and temporary evils as inseparable from the practical operation of all human institutions, and looking only to the general result, every patriot has reason to be satisfied.

For all the toll the desert takes of a man it gives compensations, deep breaths, deep sleep, and the communion of the stars.

And yet, in spite of the opposition encountered, and the obstacles opposed to their acquisition of knowledge and their accumulation of property, the progress made by colored women along these lines has never been surpassed by that of any people in the history of the world.

And so, lifting as we climb, onward and upward we go, struggling and striving, and hoping that the buds and blossoms of our desires will burst into glorious fruition ere long.

I grew tired and did more harm than good; so, if I met with a difficult point, for example, in algebra, instead of poring over it till I was bewildered, I left it, took my work or some amusing book, and resumed it when my mind was fresh.

I have never had any trouble turning the page in the book of my life.

You are going to make mistakes — own them, make amends, and move on. Guilt and regret kills many a man before their time. Turn the page, get off the ride.

Do not fall into the entitlement trap of feeling you are a victim, you are not. Get over it and get on with it.

Life’s not easy…don’t try and make it that way. It’s not fair, it never was, it isn’t now, it won’t ever be.

TIME is a Master Worker that heals the wounds of temporary defeat; equalizes the inequalities, and rights the wrongs of the world. There is nothing ‘impossible’ with time!

When you do not know what to do or which way to turn, SMILE! This will relax your mind and let the sunshine of happiness into your soul.

Nevertheless, he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest.

First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.

The past material conditions of life have gone for ever; no will of man can recall them.

The ultimate effect of parasitism is always a paralysis of the will and an inability to compel oneself into any course of action for the moment unpleasurable and exhaustive.

All sincere and earnest search after truth, even where it fails to reach it, yet, often comes so near to it, that other minds more happily situated may be led, by pointing out its very limitations and errors, to obtain a larger view.

True magnanimity consists not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.

Failure often leads a man to success by arousing his latent energy, by firing a dormant purpose, by awakening powers which were sleeping.

No tyranny of circumstances can permanently imprison a determined will.

Scarcely anything seems impossible to the man who can will strongly enough and long enough.

It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that wins.

Optimism is a success builder; pessimism an achievement killer.