Christmas is a tonic for our souls. It moves us to think of others rather than of ourselves. It directs our thoughts to giving.

Some people seem to fade away but then when they are truly gone, it’s like they didn’t fade away at all.

I think 9/11 affected everybody in one way or another.

A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

What’s done can’t be undone.

Ask an older person you respect to tell you his or her greatest regret.

In every parting there is an image of death.

Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.

Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: ‚Oh, that’s just the way things are done around here.‘ Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.

I still live, I still think: I still have to live, for I still have to think.

Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.

When you are laboring for others let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.

Sometimes we look back and 10 years from now we think, ‚Boy, those were great old days.‘ Well, you know, we’re living in the good old days.

The difference is too nice – Where ends the virtue or begins the vice.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn’t speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind – like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don’t want victories anymore.

The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

After your death you will be what you were before your birth.

We are anthill men upon an anthill world.

I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‚Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.

We are always doing something for posterity, but I would fain see posterity do something for us.

Since the world has existed, there has been injustice. But it is one world, the more so as it becomes smaller, more accessible. There is just no question that there is more obligation that those who have should give to those who have nothing.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

My experience is listen, see, feel – and then think about what you change.

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.

The greatest virtues are those which are most useful to other persons.

How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot? The world forgetting, by the world forgot.

When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving. If he gives us the gift of Christmas, it is because we all have the ability to understand and receive it.

Practice radical humility. Take no credit for your talents, intellectual abilities, aptitudes, or proficiencies. Be in a state of awe and bewilderment.

It takes a long time to bring the past up to the present.

This isn’t life in the fast lane, it’s life in the oncoming traffic.

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.

Observe constantly that all things take place by change, and accustom thyself to consider that the nature of the Universe loves nothing so much as to change the things which are, and to make new things like them.

I’d rather give my life than be afraid to give it.

Nothing has been purchased more dearly than the little bit of reason and sense of freedom which now constitutes our pride.

I need one of those baby monitors from my subconscious to my consciousness so I can know what the hell I’m really thinking about.

Everyone now knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago, men and women did not have easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death.

Don’t ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

If there is something to pardon in everything, there is also something to condemn.

Growing old has been the greatest surprise of my life.

I wish I had known when I was in the White House what I know now about the Third World.

Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide.

I was one of the wildest Santa Clauses they ever had.

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.

The essence of Richard Nixon is loneliness.

There is a fine balance between honoring the past and losing yourself in it. For example, you can acknowledge and learn from mistakes you made, and then move on and refocus on the now. It is called forgiving yourself.