Echoes

Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.

We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.

Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.

In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

I found that a strict and regular life is the true way to conquer nature, and that the proverb which says that nature is so powerful is in part false.

May God continue the unity of our country as the railroad unites the two great oceans of the world.

If you want peace, prepare for war.

The best fighter is never angry.

Abstinence is the nurse of the soul.

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

Be of one mind and one faith, that you may conquer your enemies and lead long and happy lives.

The ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious virtue throughout the Kingdom, first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their persons. Wishing to cultivate their persons, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things. Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their persons were cultivated. Their persons being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy. From the Son of Heaven down to the mass of the people, all must consider the cultivation of the person the root of everything besides.

Grace under pressure.

Force has no place where there is need of skill.

I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

No man is free who is not master of himself.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

One cannot grow fine flowers in a thin soil.

Relentless toil conquers all.

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.

Keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day. That is, be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points, do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test. So with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention, energetic volition, and self-denial in unnecessary things. He will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him, and when his softer fellow-mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

Whatever you are, be a good one.

It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government.