So much of what we do every single day is the result of habits that we have formed over time.

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

Right discipline consists, not in external compulsion, but in the habits of mind which lead spontaneously to desirable rather than undesirable activities.

It’s the repetition of affirmations that leads to belief. And once that belief becomes a deep conviction, things begin to happen.

Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends… Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world. We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.

Personally I’m always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

Confidence is that feeling by which the mind embarks in great and honorable courses with a sure hope and trust in itself.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

I never expected to be anybody important.

Custom reconciles us to everything.

Let it be your constant method to look into the design of people’s actions, and see what they would be at, as often as it is practicable; and to make this custom the more significant, practice it first upon yourself.

Want balance in your life? Then sure, get your own act together, but don’t forget four powerful disciplines of execution in your team and organization.

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.

I don’t think there’s anyone who would say they don’t want or need more of God’s power in their life.

I’ve found men are less likely to let petty things annoy them.

Never complain and never explain.

Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it… Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.

I was never really good at anything except for the ability to learn.

I have nowhere claimed nor even implied that unbelief is a guarantee of good conduct or even an indicator of it.

The man who has done his level best… is a success, even though the world may write him down a failure.

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he be free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family.

I criticize by creation – not by finding fault.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

Education comes from within; you get it by struggle and effort and thought.

An unclean person is universally a slothful one.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

We work to become, not to acquire.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

You can be obsessed with the bad things people say and the good things; either way, you’re obsessed with yourself, and I’m not – you can become unhinged so easily.

People are underestimating the force of angry kids.

Ritual is another word for fear, manifested in a different way.

Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

I’m just going to say it: I’m pro-guilt. Guilt is good. Guilt helps us stay on track because it’s about our behavior. It occurs when we compare something we’ve done – or failed to do – with our personal values.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

One of the huge imbalances in life is the disparity between your daily existence, with its routines and habits, and the dream you have within yourself of some extraordinarily satisfying way of living.

Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

We must be our own before we can be another’s.

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.

A person places themselves on a level with the ones they praise.

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

Not only must we be good, but we must also be good for something.

As soon as the fear approaches near, attack and destroy it.

I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‚cos that’s just… that’s just telling yourself a lie.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.

If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.

I don’t think I get angry.

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face.

I didn’t just invent saying offensive things.

When you’re coming up with new material, it’s not always gonna be good. The only way to learn is for it not to get a laugh, so you can adjust it and come back the next day to see if it’s working right. Next time, you might get a different laugh. You’re constantly rebuilding.

The major reason for setting a goal is for what it makes of you to accomplish it. What it makes of you will always be the far greater value than what you get.

How should a man be capable of grooming his own horse, or of furbishing his own spear and helmet, if he allows himself to become unaccustomed to tending even his own person, which is his most treasured belonging?