Quotes to inspire and reflect

Circumstances do not make the man; they merely reveal him to himself.

Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?

What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail? The easiest person to deceive is one's own self.

Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one is to blame.

If you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it.

Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered either by themselves or by others.

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.

We must ask where we are and whither we are tending.

The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual, everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort.

Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour by hour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going.

Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

I have resolved that from this day on, I will do all the business I can honestly, have all the fun I can reasonably, do all the good I can willingly, and save my digestion by thinking pleasantly.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

But if a person has had the sense of the Call -- the feeling that there's an adventure for him -- and if he doesn't follow that, but remains in the society because it's safe and secure, then life dries up.

Let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might towards the goal which can never be obtained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which the gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn. For life is short, art eternal.

Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.

Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do.

All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.

Winners make it happen. Losers let it happen.

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

Everyone rises to their level of incompetence.

Plan your work and work your plan.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Long-range planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decisions.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.

By going over your day in imagination before you begin it, you can begin acting successfully at any moment.

If you go to work on your goals, your goals will go to work on you. If you go to work on your plan, your plan will go to work on you. Whatever good things we build end up building us.

I like a person who knows his own mind and sticks to it; who sees at once what, in given circumstances, is to be done, and does it.

Make no small plans for they have not the power to stir men’s blood.

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.

If you can't do great things, do small things in a great way. Don't wait for great opportunities. Seize common, everyday ones and make them great.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principals which direct them.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

For every disciplined effort, there is a multiple reward.

Plan for the future, because that is where you are going to spend the rest of your life.

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

Know what you want to do, hold the thought firmly, and do every day what should be done, and every sunset will see you that much nearer the goal.

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he had imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.

I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened among all of the political men of our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit; not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by nonparticipation in what we believe is evil.

We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny, but what we put into it is ours.