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Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valour.

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.

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.

Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

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.

The road of human welfare lies along the old highway of steadfast well-doing; and they who are the most persistent, and work in the truest spirit, will usually be the most successful.

Labour is not only a necessity and a duty, but a blessing: only the idler feels it to be a curse.

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.

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

Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.

In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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