As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.

There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.

In 1995, I was diagnosed with cancer, and I had to practice what I preached. I had always said to ‚believe in God‘ and ‚don’t give up‘ to little kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. I then thought if I can’t call on that same God and same strength that I told people about, I would be a liar and a phony.

We were poor, but we smiled.

Moral authority comes from following universal and timeless principles like honesty, integrity, treating people with respect.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

Feeling sorry for ourselves is the most useless waste of energy on the planet. It does absolutely no good. We can’t let our circumstances or what others do or don’t do control us. We can decide to be happy regardless.

I was raised in a family where vulnerability was barely tolerated: no training wheels on our bicycles, no goggles in the pool, just get it done. And so I grew up not only with discomfort about my own vulnerability, I didn’t care for it in other people either.

The most important thing for a young man is to establish a credit… a reputation, character.

Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.

I don’t mind people hating me, because it pushes me.

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.

The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous.

I don’t regard myself as a cracking good climber. I’m just strong in the back. I have a lot of enthusiasm, and I’m good on ice.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

I was born in London in England in 1934. I went through, as a child, the horrors of World War II, through a time when food was rationed and we learned to be very careful, and we never had more to eat than what we needed to eat. There was no waste. Everything was used.

A vigorous temper is not altogether an evil. Men who are easy as an old shoe are generally of little worth.

The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances.

How much pain they have cost us, the evils which have never happened.

When your desires are strong enough you will appear to possess superhuman powers to achieve.

The difference between us and them, between you and success, is not that you never fail, but it’s how you recover from those failures – is that you keep getting up time and time again. You figure out what you did wrong, and then you make it right. I say that to my kids every day.

My mother raised me with God. We were poor financially, but we were rich spiritually.

‚Tis best to weigh the enemy more mighty than he seems.

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.

Good luck has its storms.

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.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

I had no idea of the character. But the moment I was dressed, the clothes and the make-up made me feel the person he was. I began to know him, and by the time I walked onto the stage he was fully born.

Everything in the world may be endured except continual prosperity.

In crises the most daring course is often safest.

There’s always a bittersweet kind of thing, but I feel like everything had to work out the way it is. Everything that had to happen, happened.

A lost battle is a battle one thinks one has lost.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

There are people out there who hate me and who say I’m arrogant, vain, and whatever. That’s all part of my success. I am made to be the best.

Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

I have bad reflexes. I was once run over by a car being pushed by two guys.

Happy is he who still loves something he loved in the nursery: He has not been broken in two by time; he is not two men, but one, and he has saved not only his soul but his life.

Even when folks are hitting you over the head, you can’t stop marching. Even when they’re turning the hoses on you, you can’t stop.

When defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

The strong man is the one who is able to intercept at will the communication between the senses and the mind.

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

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

That is why, no matter how desperate the predicament is, I am always very much in earnest about clutching my cane, straightening my derby hat and fixing my tie, even though I have just landed on my head.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

If you get knocked down – setbacks in life, like applying for a job if they don’t hire you – keep trying, keep getting up, keep doing it.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

And I love that even in the toughest moments, when we’re all sweating it – when we’re worried that the bill won’t pass, and it seems like all is lost – Barack never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise. Just like his grandmother, he just keeps getting up and moving forward… with patience and wisdom, and courage and grace.

There’s no point in saying anything but the truth.

A Scout smiles and whistles under all circumstances.

We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year!

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.

The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted.

After many years of great mercy, after tasting of the powers of the world to come, we still are so weak, so foolish; but, oh! when we get away from self to God, there all is truth and purity and holiness, and our heart finds peace, wisdom, completeness, delight, joy, victory.

I think love is one of the purest things you can sing about. One of the best things you can sing about.

America’s promises do not come with a price tag. We meet our commitments. We bear our burdens. That’s one of the reasons why almost every country on Earth sees America as stronger and more respected today than they did eight years ago when I took office.

A wounded deer leaps the highest.

Truth never damages a cause that is just.

The only way round is through.