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Patience lies at the root of all pleasures, as well as of all powers.

The mere drudgery undergone by some men in carrying on their undertakings has been something extraordinary, but the drudgery they regarded as the price of success.

Time should not be allowed to pass without yielding fruits, in the form of something learnt worthy of being known, some good principle cultivated, or some good habit strengthened.

Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details, and carries him onward and upward in every station in life.

Work is the law of our being--the living principle that carries men and nations onward.

Courage, combined with energy and perseverance, will overcome difficulties apparently insurmountable.

Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action.

A man must so train his habits as to rely upon his own powers and depend upon his own courage in moments of emergency.

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.

Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action.

Self-respect, originating in self-love, instigates the first step of improvement.

Every man's first duty is, to improve, to educate, and elevate himself--helping forward his brethren at the same time by all reasonable methods.

Industry enables men to earn their living; it should also enable them to learn to live.

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles

We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been stored up effort in the past.

In this life we get nothing save by effort.

Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.

There is little place in active life for the timid good man.

The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming