My biggest skill is common sense. I understand life.

I’m always afraid of failing. I have to quiet that fear if I’m going to get up in the morning.

One secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.

I try to live what I teach. A lot of things come against us in life, but we should try to find something to be grateful for, and see each day as a gift.

You are victors, not victims!

Let us train our minds to desire what the situation demands.

It is only imperfection that complains of what is imperfect. The more perfect we are the more gentle and quiet we become towards the defects of others.

The way for a young man to rise is to improve himself in every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him.

Adjusting to the passage of time, I think, is a key to success and to life: just being able to roll with the punches.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do. And I’ve changed my mind about a lot of things over the years.

I think I should learn French and be a better cook – basic, really good life stuff.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

When new turns of behavior cease to appear in the life of the individual, its behavior ceases to be intelligent.

People and organizations don’t grow much without delegation and completed staff work because they are confined to the capacities of the boss and reflect both personal strengths and weaknesses.

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

Caesar was a man of great common sense and good taste, meaning thereby a man without originality or moral courage.

Just remember, you can’t climb the ladder of success with your hands in your pockets.

Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.

Do what nobody else can do for you. Omit to do anything else.

He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.

Habit is a second nature that destroys the first. But what is nature? Why is habit not natural? I am very much afraid that nature itself is only a first habit, just as habit is a second nature.

I always try to be smart. I try to treat all the money I’m making like it’s the last time I’m going to make it.

People who add value to others do so intentionally. I say that because to add value, leaders must give of themselves, and that rarely occurs by accident.

The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depends upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. This is the man of moderation, the man of manly character and of wisdom.

I don’t see myself as ever being like anybody else.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life.

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.

Every spoken word arouses our self-will.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

I was always told as a child by my mother that you always have to be impeccable, even when you go to bed.

I don’t look at my old work. I mean, they made nice books; the books were made without me, the one from last year and the one from this year. I – personally, I’m not interested in my own past. I’m only interested in today – perhaps tomorrow.

I’ve learned through my own relationship with God that He’s not expecting me to be perfect; He wants me to do my best to be in His will and take steps of faith as He leads me, through His Word and the promptings He speaks to my heart.

Nobody can ever say that being negative ever helped them at all – not in any way.

So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

I’m 31 now. I think I’m beginning to understand what life is, what romance is, and what a relationship means.

You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.

I always teach myself calm and visualization stuff.

You’re not a product of your nature. That is your genetic makeup or your nurture, the things that have happened to you. Of course those things affect you powerfully, but they do not determine you.

Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconcious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.

Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.

Subdue your appetites, my dears, and you’ve conquered human nature.

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he be free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family.

Once you begin to fall off the track and believe you breathe different air to everyone else, you’re doomed; you’re finished.

My earliest books focus almost entirely on psychological tools to help readers employ effective commonsense approaches to problems. There are no references to God or a higher self in the first 15 or so years of my publishing history.

An individual step in character training is to put responsibility on the individual.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Young love is wild and outrageous, laughing at moderation and blinding us to common sense.

Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.

You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.

Being happy is a matter of personal taste.

If you want a quality, act as if you already had it.

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

You can do the same thing with $20 million that you would do with $50 million. So at a certain point in your life and in your career, you realise that it’s not about the money.

We are often raised as dependents then given over to teachers. It’s experience and exploration that can transform us and lead to mastery.

I follow three rules: Do the right thing, do the best you can, and always show people you care.

I think it’s OK to be confident in yourself.

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.

An elusive, enigmatic aura will make people want to know more, drawing them into your circle. Create such a power by hinting at something contradictory within you.

Set up a situation that presents you with something slightly beyond your reach.