To see the right and not to do it is cowardice.

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

Once I’ve decided to do something, I do usually try to carry it through to fruition.

When I get logical, and I don’t trust my instincts – that’s when I get in trouble.

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

All of us knows, not what is expedient, not what is going to make us popular, not what the policy is, or the company policy – but in truth each of us knows what is the right thing to do. And that’s how I am guided.

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Courage is a mean with regard to fear and confidence.

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

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.

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.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

It’s so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.

I don’t think that much about my relationship with my mother and what it did to me. I sometimes feel terrible regret about her, what her life must have been like. Often, when I’m enjoying something, I think of how meager her rewards were and how much courage, in a way, she needed to go on living.

Fortunately we’re not a public company – we’re a private group of companies, and I can do what I want.

Character is power.

Adventures are to the adventurous.

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Character is always known. Thefts never enrich; alms never impoverish; murder will speak out of stone walls.

With a tree, all the growth takes place at the growing tips. Humanity is exactly the same. All the growth takes place in the growing tip: among that one percent of the population. It’s made up of pioneers, the beginners. That’s where the action is.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

I don’t think you ever really know what all you’re doing, so you have to act on faith.

A gentleman would be ashamed should his deeds not match his words.

You cannot be a hero without being a coward.

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‚Yes,‘ you know he is a crook.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

Heroes are not known by the loftiness of their carriage; the greatest braggarts are generally the merest cowards.

The approach of liberty makes even an old man brave.

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

Your philosophy determines whether you will go for the disciplines or continue the errors.

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

When it comes to the pinch, human beings are heroic.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

I can’t very well be teaching one way and living my life another way. What I do in life must be consistent with the things I say. And the same goes for you.

An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.

True nobility is exempt from fear.

And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values, like you work hard for what you want in life. That your word is your bond; that you do what you say you’re going to do. That you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don’t know them and even if you don’t agree with them.

I think that a president needs to have a variety of views presented. But also, there has to be a team effort, because otherwise, I think it creates a dissonance and difficulty.

Courage that grows from constitution often forsakes a man when he has occasion for it; courage which arises from a sense of duty acts; in a uniform manner.

The court generally moves in small steps rather than in one giant step.

Freedom lies in being bold.

The moment there is suspicion about a person’s motives, everything he does becomes tainted.

I think life is a matter of choices and that wherever we are, good or bad, is because of choices we make.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

Meditation is to get insight, to get understanding and compassion, and when you have them, you are compelled to act.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

You don’t tell deliberate lies, but sometimes you have to be evasive.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong.

Cowards die many times before their actual deaths.

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.

I stand by all the misstatements that I’ve made.

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

I’m not frightened of appearing vulnerable.

Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.