At twenty years of age the will reigns; at thirty, the wit; and at forty, the judgment.

Very often, say what you will, a knave is only a fool.

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.

If what you are doing is not moving you towards your goals, then it’s moving you away from your goals.

Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.

Education doesn’t change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.

Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place – that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have perseverance to realise the great life.

If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.

The challenge is to stay cool enough to handle the pressure in the moment so that you can succeed in the future.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

One must steer, not talk.

If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.

You can change your world by changing your words… Remember, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.

No one lives long enough to learn everything they need to learn starting from scratch. To be successful, we absolutely, positively have to find people who have already paid the price to learn the things that we need to learn to achieve our goals.

It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.

I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future.

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.

People intoxicate themselves with work so they won’t see how they really are.

Whatever you dwell on in the conscious grows in your experience.

The life so short, the craft so long to learn.

So many people have this idea: I want to achieve something great or be somebody great. And they neglect the step that leads to greatness. They don’t honor this step at this moment because they have this idea of some future moment where they are going to be great.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

Here comes 40. I’m feeling my age and I’ve ordered the Ferrari. I’m going to get the whole mid-life crisis package.

Education is the period during which you are being instructed by somebody you do not know, about something you do not want to know.

Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.

We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.

In order for me to be successful… In order to be a great artist – musician, actor, painter, whatever – you must be able to be private in public at all times. That is what we do.

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.

Don’t throw stones at your neighbors if your own windows are glass.

We are what we believe we are.

I’m not afraid to make mistakes.

A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim.

Much of your pain is the bitter potion by which the physician within you heals your sick self.

Accountability breeds response-ability.

When you’re young, you keep reading new writers and you keep changing your mind about how you ought to sound.

Man is not the sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does not yet have, of what he could have.

Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety.

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

No one should be ashamed to admit he is wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but content themselves with a mediocrity of success.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

That nice, soft pillow and the warm blanket, and it’s all comfortable, and no one wants to leave that comfort – but if you can wake up early in the morning, get a head start on everyone else that’s still sleeping, get productive time doing things that you need to do – that’s a huge piece to moving your life forward.

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

When schools flourish, all flourishes.

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.

Science is the father of knowledge, but opinion breeds ignorance.

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

Half a truth is often a great lie.

I don’t believe you could be a 39-year-old quarterback in the NFL and eat cheeseburgers every day. I want to be able to do what I love to do for a long time.

Commit yourself to a mighty purpose.

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

They know enough who know how to learn.

I don’t have this feeling that 70 is really old.

Anything you put your mind to and add your imagination into can make your life a lot better and a lot more fun.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.