Life and Existence

In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high.

A noble aim, Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed, In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.

An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself.

An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself.

Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

Be winged arrows, aiming at fulfillment and goal, even though you will tire without having reached the mark.

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim.

We aim above the mark to hit the mark.

An ignorance of means may minister To greatness, but an ignorance of aims Makes it impossible to be great at all.

Humility like darkness reveals the heavenly lights.

If you want to understand the meaning of happiness, you must see it as a reward and not as a goal.

It is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive.

One nail drives out another; habit is overcome by habit.

Habit is a compromise effected between an individual and his environment.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

Growth is the only evidence of life.

It grows—it must grow; nothing can prevent it.

Just as we outgrow a pair of trousers, we outgrow acquaintances, libraries, principles, etc., at times before they’re worn out and at times—and this is the worst of all—before we have new ones.

All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.

A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

I will offer here, as a sound maxim, this: That we can’t reach old age by another man’s road.

I will offer here, as a sound maxim, this: That we can’t reach old age by another man’s road.

And what would it be to grow old? For, after a certain distance, every step we take in life we find the ice growing thinner below our feet, and all around us and behind us we see our contemporaries going through.

And what would it be to grow old? For, after a certain distance, every step we take in life we find the ice growing thinner below our feet, and all around us and behind us we see our contemporaries going through.