The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

Begin – to begin is half the work, let half still remain; again begin this, and thou wilt have finished.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

I’m the most stubborn person I know.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.

Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear.

A clever man commits no minor blunders.

I have survivor’s curiosity, I guess.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

The real truths of life are never entirely new to you or to anybody because there is a level deep down within you where you already know all the things, all those spiritual truths that you read or hear, and then recognize them. I say ‚recognize‘ because you’re not… it’s not new.

In other words, don’t expect to always be great. Disappointments, failures and setbacks are a normal part of the lifecycle of a unit or a company and what the leader has to do is constantly be up and say ‚we have a problem, let’s go and get it‘.

We should take care not to make the intellect our goal; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.

Admiration is the daughter of ignorance.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

Build a man a fire, and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life.

It is easy to dismiss the world as ‚irrelevant,‘ or consumed by ‚paranoid anti-Americanism,‘ but perhaps not wise.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge. We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

When your dream is bigger than you are, you only have two choices: give up or get help.

That is never too often repeated, which is never sufficiently learned.

If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is nature’s way.

There may not be one Truth – there may be several truths – but saying that is not to say that reality doesn’t exist.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure of maintaining that state of mind known as a burning desire to win – essential to success.

Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.

Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but also by the heart.

‚They‘ are the people that don’t believe in you, that say that you won’t succeed. We stay away from ‚They.‘

We should feel sorrow, but not sink under its oppression.

I’m not looking for sympathy at all.

The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That’s what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they’ll go through the pain no matter what happens.

No man lives without jostling and being jostled; in all ways he has to elbow himself through the world, giving and receiving offence.

Truth is always in harmony with herself, and is not concerned chiefly to reveal the justice that may consist with wrong-doing.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom… in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

Before success comes in any man’s life, he’s sure to meet with much temporary defeat and, perhaps some failures. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and the most logical thing to do is to quit. That’s exactly what the majority of men do.

I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed.

To reach a port, we must sail – sail, not tie at anchor – sail, not drift.

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion.

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.

The more I see of deer, the more I admire them as mountaineers. They make their way into the heart of the roughest solitudes with smooth reserve of strength, through dense belts of brush and forest encumbered with fallen trees and boulder piles, across canons, roaring streams, and snow-fields, ever showing forth beauty and courage.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns.

Silence is the virtue of fools.

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

Nothing fortifies scepticism more than the fact that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends.

Step with care and great tact, and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.