Life and Existence

Life is no `brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Life is no `brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I've got to hold up for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight.

I live in the present. I only remember the past, and anticipate the future.

I live in the present. I only remember the past, and anticipate the future.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Every man, as to character, is the creature of the age in which he lives. Very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of their times.

In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.

Time is our most valuable asset, yet we tend to waste it, kill it, and spend it rather than invest it.

Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.

Success is not to be measured by the position someone has reached in life, but the obstacles he has overcome while trying to succeed.

Life, they urge, would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they did by reason and reason only.

If you have the guts to follow the risk, however, life opens, opens, opens up all along the line.

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. We have not managed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us past it, and then if we turn round to gaze at the remote past, we can barely catch sight of it, so imperceptible has it become.

We do not succeed in changing things according to our desire, but gradually our desire changes. The situation that we hoped to change because it was intolerable becomes unimportant. We have not managed to surmount the obstacle, as we were absolutely determined to do, but life has taken us round it, led us past it, and then if we turn round to gaze at the remote past, we can barely catch sight of it, so imperceptible has it become.

Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.

He has achieved success who has worked well, laughed often, and loved much.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainty that just to be alive is a grand thing.

Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.

Some memories are realities, and are better than anything that can ever happen to one again.

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation.

One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of Creation.