With will one can do anything.
We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.
If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower.
Obedience, submission, discipline, courage – these are among the characteristics which make a man.
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigour and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.
The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.
Luck whines; labor whistles.
The great and good do no die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.
Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow.
It is energy – the central element of which is will – that produces the miracle that is enthusiasm in all ages. Everywhere it is what is called force of character and the sustaining power of all great action.
Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.
The experience gathered from books, though often valuable, is but the nature of learning; whereas the experience gained from actual life is one of the nature of wisdom.
He who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
Men who are resolved to find a way for themselves will always find opportunities enough; and if they do not find them, they will make them.
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual.
Man cannot aspire if he looked down; if he rise, he must look up.
It is not ease, but effort-not facility, but difficulty, makes men. There is, perhaps, no station in life in which difficulties have not to be encountered and overcome before any decided measure of success can be achieved.
The duty of helping one’s self in the highest sense involves the helping of one’s neighbors.
Good character is property. It is the noblest of all possessions.
Great men stamp their mind upon their age and nation.