Instead of saying that man is the creature of circumstance, it would be nearer the mark to say that man is the architect of circumstance.

In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.

For the beautiful word begets the beautiful deed.

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging 10 times in his life.

Conflict is the gadfly of thought. It stirs us to observation and memory. It instigates to invention. It shocks us out of sheeplike passivity, and sets us at noting and contriving.