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.

If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big and primary changes, work on your paradigm.

It doesn’t take a majority to make a rebellion; it takes only a few determined leaders and a sound cause.

Traveling around the world and preaching for over 70 years did not give much time for reflection.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

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

The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.

A man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible blessing of fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

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

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.

It’s not ‚can‘; it’s ‚will.‘ You have to will things into fruition.

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.

All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness.

I was born in a very poor family. I used to sell tea in a railway coach as a child. My mother used to wash utensils and do lowly household work in the houses of others to earn a livelihood. I have seen poverty very closely. I have lived in poverty. As a child, my entire childhood was steeped in poverty.

Any man who has had the job I’ve had and didn’t have a sense of humor wouldn’t still be here.

I like to use the hard times in the past to motivate me today.

The British soldier can stand up to anything except the British War Office.

So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for every thing one has a mind to do.

Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spent the rest of the day putting the pieces together.

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

The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it: so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it.

Ambition has become a dirty word, and I believe it is a great evolutionary force for the positive. If people fail or go astray in their ambition I can live with it but not with people lowering their expectations, wasting time, slacking off and glorifying failure and stupidity.

War is a poor chisel to carve out tomorrow.

The first virtue in a soldier is endurance of fatigue; courage is only the second virtue.

Let us not forget who we are. Drug abuse is a repudiation of everything America is.

For me, money is not my definition of success. Inspiring people is a definition of success.

A real gentleman, even if he loses everything he owns, must show no emotion. Money must be so far beneath a gentleman that it is hardly worth troubling about.

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

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

In every phenomenon the beginning remains always the most notable moment.

Maturity is the ability to reap without apology and not complain when things don’t go well.

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

It is often said that before you die your life passes before your eyes. It is in fact true. It’s called living.

I started writing at the kitchen table after midnight. It took ten months to finish that first book; I sent it to a publisher and I got some kind of prize, so it was like a dream – I was surprised to find it happening.

I would have written of me on my stone: I had a lover’s quarrel with the world.

Opportunity often comes disguised in the form of misfortune, or temporary defeat.

Now, you lose something in your life, or you come into a conflict, and there’s gonna come a time that you’re gonna know: There was a reason for that. And at the end of your life, all the things you thought were periods, they turn out to be commas. There was never a full stop in any of it.

Just because something didn’t work out your way, or somebody disappointed you, that does not change who you are.

You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Though lovers be lost, love shall not.

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.

While on top of Everest, I looked across the valley towards the great peak Makalu and mentally worked out a route about how it could be climbed. It showed me that even though I was standing on top of the world, it wasn’t the end of everything. I was still looking beyond to other interesting challenges.

Do all you can to make your dreams come true.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

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

I come from – I came from Wales, and it’s a strong, butch society. We were in the war and all that. People didn’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves. You had to get on with it. So my credo is get on with it. I don’t waste time being soft. I’m not cold, but I don’t like being, wasting my time with – life’s too short.

It is the nature of every person to error, but only the fool perseveres in error.

It sounds simple telling people to work hard and never quit, but to really execute and demonstrate those principles takes discipline and faith. Those are the two factors that I believe separate the good from the great, the successes from the failures.

I’m just like you – I want to be a good human being. I’m doing my best, and I’m working at it. And I’m trying to be a Christian. I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‚I’m a Christian.‘ I always think, ‚Already? You’ve already got it?‘ I’m working at it. And at my age, I’ll still be working at it at 96.