Quotes to inspire and reflect

What recommends commerce to me is its enterprise and bravery. It does not clasp its hands and pray to Jupiter.

We demand that big business give people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right, he shall himself be given a square deal.

To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one’s self … and to venture in the highest sense is precisely to become conscious of one’s self.

The most sensible people to be met with in society are men of business and of the world, who argue from what they see and know, instead of spinning cobweb distinctions of what things ought to be.

Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.

Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship, the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth.

Some see private enterprise as a predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon.

Never shrink from doing anything which your business calls you to do. The man who is above his business may one day find his business above him.

The true worth of a man is to be measured by the objects he pursues.

No institution which does not continually test its ideals, techniques and measure of accomplishment can claim real vitality.

Is there anything in life so disenchanting as achievement?

I have done what I could do in life, and if I could not do better, I did not deserve it. In vain have I tried to step beyond what bound me. Despite my years, I am still trying!

The significance of man is not what he attains, but rather in what he longs to attain.

The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.

To be thrown upon one’s own resources, is to be cast in the very lap of fortune.

Always fall in with what you’re asked to accept. Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever’s going. Not against: with.

Instead of being concerned that you have no office, be concerned to think how you may fit yourself for office. Instead of being concerned that you are not known, see to the worthy of being known.

When a great man has some one object in view to be achieved in a given time, it may be absolutely necessary for him to walk out of all the common roads.

Achievement is the death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.

The only conquests which are permanent and leave no regrets are our conquest over ourselves.

No one respects a talent that is concealed.

Everybody has the obligation to produce as long as they are capable.

I’m not very smart and have mediocre ability. I make up for it with hard work.

A man’s ability cannot possibly be of one sort and his soul of another. If his soul be well-ordered, serious and restrained, his ability also is sound and sober. Conversely, when the one degenerates, the other is contaminated.

Ability wins us the esteem of the true men; luck that of the people.

The art of using moderate abilities to advantage often brings greater results than actual brilliance.

But is it in destroying and pulling down that skill is displayed? The shallowest understanding, the rudest hand, is more than equal to the task.

Ability and necessity dwell near each other.

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me; I will be concerned at my own want of ability.

What I need is someone who will make me do what I can.

Men who undertake considerable things, even in a regular way, ought to give us ground to presume ability.

The two enemies of human happiness are pain and boredom.

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between.

Music has a power of forming the character and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.

Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.

All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

Each day is a little life; every waking and rising a little birth; every fresh morning a little youth; every going to rest and sleep a little death.

The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.

Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

Democritus says, but we know nothing really for truth lies deep down.

Chilo advised, not to speak evil of the dead.

He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge and one only evil, namely, ignorance.

He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing.

Time is the image of eternity.

All things are in common among friends.