Life and Existence

Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation, but by action. Strive to do your duty and you will soon discover of what stuff you are made.

Difficulty attracts the man of character because it is in embracing it that he realizes himself.

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

He, who moves not forward, goes backward.

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

Be vigilant; guard your mind against negative thoughts.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are rearranging their prejudices.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.

Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.

Habit is stronger than reason.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.

DifficuIties mastered are opportunities won.

When the water starts boiling,it is foolish to turn off the heat.

You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.

What I am looking for is not out there … it’s in me.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

I deny nothing, but doubt everything.

You can never plan the future by the past.

You can never plan the future by the past.

The wisest is he that knows only that he knows nothing.

I came upstairs into the world; for I was born in a cellar.