Unless you have prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you just in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.
There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something tomorrow.
Be larger than your task.
Nothing else so destroys the power to stand alone as the habit of leaning upon others. If you lean, you will never be strong or original. Stand alone or bury your ambition to be somebody in the world.
Poverty often hides her charms under an ugly mask; yet thousands have been forced into greatness by their very struggle to keep the wolf from the door.
The glow of satisfaction which follows the consciousness of doing our level best never comes to a human being from any other experience.
The giants of the race have been men of concentration, who have struck sledge-hammer blows in one place until they have accomplished their purpose. The successful men of today are men of one overmastering idea, one unwavering aim, men of single and intense purpose.
The greatest trouble with most of us is that our demands upon ourselves are so feeble, the call upon the great within of us so weak and intermittent that it makes no impression upon the creative energies; it lacks the force that transmutes desires into realities.
Let your air be that of a winner, a man who is resolved to make his way in the world, to make himself stand for something.
What we sincerely believe regarding ourselves is true for us.
Mirth is God’s medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety-all the rust of life- ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth.
Resolve that whatever you do, you will bring the whole man to it; that you will fling the whole weight of your being into it.
The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of the weak.
The secret of happiness is in a cheerful, contented mind. He is poor who is dissatisfied; he is rich who is contented with what he has, and can enjoy what others own.
They may well fear fate who have any infirmity of habit or aim: but they who rest on what is have a destiny beyond destiny, and can make mouths of fortune.
It is those who have this imperative demand for the best in their natures, and who will accept nothing short of it, that holds the banners of progress, that set the standards, the ideals, for others.
It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world.
Live and let live is not enough; live and help live is not too much.
As long as a man faces life hopefully, confidently, triumphantly he is not a failure.
A strong, successful man is not the victim of his environment. He creates favorable conditions. His own inherent force and energy compel things to turn out as he desires.
Success is the child of drudgery and perseverance. It cannot be coaxed or bribed; pay the price and it is yours.