A mission statement is not something you write overnight… But fundamentally, your mission statement becomes your constitution, the solid expression of your vision and values. It becomes the criterion by which you measure everything else in your life.

No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun’s rays do not burn until brought to a focus.

I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.

If it is surely the means to the highest end we know, can any work be humble or disgusting? Will it not rather be elevating as a ladder, the means by which we are translated?

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

My heroes don’t have anything special. They have something to tell other people but they don’t know how, so they talk to themselves.

I am the son of a freedom fighter, and a son of a freedom fighter automatically imbibes the value of democracy.

Some men see things as they are, and say why. I dream of things that never were, and say why not.

Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.

If it wasn’t for the fun and money, I really don’t know why I’d bother.

About morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.

Every man casts a shadow; not his body only, but his imperfectly mingled spirit. This is his grief. Let him turn which way he will, it falls opposite to the sun; short at noon, long at eve. Did you never see it?

Perhaps people like us cannot love. Ordinary people can – that is their secret.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.

When people get taken over by the ego to such an extent, there is nothing else in their mind except the ego. They can no longer feel or sense their humanity – what they share with other human beings, or even with other life forms on the planet. They are so identified with concepts in their minds that other human beings become concepts as well.

There are always three speeches, for every one you actually gave. The one you practiced, the one you gave, and the one you wish you gave.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.

I have the problems of, I must confess, old age.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

I think, for years, people have been pushed down by religion, and I don’t say that disrespectfully, but they’ve been shown a God that you can’t measure up to.

You do projects with the hope they will be big and hope they will go beyond what you imagine.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination when awake?

I think my worst problem is actually living in the moment and understanding everything that’s going on. I feel like I’m in my own bubble.

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

One of the great strengths of the United States is… we have a very large Christian population – we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

I have always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I was born.

There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad.

For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

Honor is simply the morality of superior men.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

A good name is rather to be chosen than riches.

Small aim is a crime.

We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one’s life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than ‚try to be a little kinder.‘

Nature does nothing in vain.

In my videos, I always want to be a powerful woman. That’s my mission.

I let the American people down.

Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.

I have so much in my life. I want to be of value to the world.

Spending time with God through prayer and His Word is a prerequisite for having a great life and fulfilling your purpose.

When I took over as president, I studied the Constitution, and the more I studied it, the more I realised that it does not prevent the president of India from giving the nation a vision. So when I went and presented this vision in Parliament and in legislative assemblies; everyone welcomed it, irrespective of party affiliations.

Our diplomacy and development budget is not just about reducing spending and finding efficiencies. We need a frank conversation about what we stand for as that ‚shining city on a hill.‘ And that conversation begins by acknowledging that we can’t do it on the cheap.

My goal is to entertain myself and others.

My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, the important thing is to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage of your convictions.

I’m still living at least five parallel lives, honestly! I wonder about it. I have no idea how that happens.

The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.

I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.

I will never say something I don’t agree with or believe in… even if the reward is massive!

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

No lying knight or lying priest ever prospered in any age, but especially not in the dark ones. Men prospered then only in following an openly declared purpose, and preaching candidly beloved and trusted creeds.