Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. Samuel Smiles

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat and we must take the current when it serves, Or lose our ventures. William Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar

We do not live to extenuate the miseries of the past or to accept as incurable those of the present. Fairfield Osborn

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy. Christopher Dawson

It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us. Of course, things can hurt us physically or economically and can cause sorrow. But our character, our basic identity, does not have to be hurt at all. In fact, our most difficult experiences become the crucibles that forge our character and develop the internal powers, the freedom to handle difficult circumstances in the future and to inspire others to do so as well. Stephen Covey

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and will to carry on…The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. Walter Lippman

A little common sense will sometimes do duty for a great deal of philosophy, but no amount of philosophy will make up for a failure in common sense. Goethe

The republic was not established by cowards and cowards will not preserve it. Elmer Davis

Nothing can be done quickly and prudently at the same time. Publilius Syrus

The perfection preached in the gospels never yet built up an empire. Every man of action has a strong dose of egotism, pride, hardness and cunning. But all those things will be forgiven him; indeed they will be regarded as high qualities, if he can make them the means to achieve great ends. Charles de Gaulle

Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so. Charles de Gaulle

When you can do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. George Washington Carver

The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

People naturally fear misfortune and long for good fortune, but if the distinction is carefully studied, misfortune often turns out to good fortune and good fortune to be misfortune. The wise person learns to meet the changing circumstances of life with an equitable spirit, being neither elated by success nor depressed by failure. Buddha

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always the ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. Ernest Hemingway

The death of democracy is not likely to be assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment. Robert Maynard Hutchins

Democracy cannot be saved by supermen but only by the goodness of millions of little men. Robert Maynard Hutchins

If a man is not ready to risk his life, where is his dignity? Andre Malraux

If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live. Martin Luther King

As always, victory finds a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan. Count Galezzo Ciano

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to ones courage. Anais Nin

The longest journey Is the journey inward Of him who has chosen his destiny. Dag Hammaskjold

There in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed to death by books. John Hersey

Politics is not an exact science. Otto von Bismark

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana

A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it. John Galsworthy

Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions, which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must now tell the tale. Sir Robert Scott, Antarctic

Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result. Winston Churchill

Let us brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the Birtish Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say: "This was their finest hour." Winston Churchill

We have not journey all this way across the centuraies, across the oceans, across the mountains, across the praries, because we are made of sugar candy. Winston Churchill

Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you chose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny. Charles Schurz

Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run. Mark Twain

If ye would go up high, then use your own legs! Do not get yourselves carried aloft; do not seat yourself on other people's backs and heads! Frederich Nietzsche

A strong well constituted man digests his experiences deeds and misdeeds included just as he digests his meats, even when he has some tough morsels to swallow.Frederich Nietzsche

No one can draw more out of things, books included, than he already knows. A man has no ears for that to which experience has given him access.

Heroism, the Caucasian mountaineers say, is endurance for one moment more. George Kennan

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Oscar Wilde

Let the fool be made serviceable according to his folly. Joseph Conrad

Far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat. Theodore Roosevelt

On never goes so far as when one doesn't know where one is going. Goethe