Echoes

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

You may never know what results come of your actions. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.

Arise, begin this very moment, and say, “Now is the time to do: now is the time to fight, now is the proper time for amendment.”

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them.

We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution, there is, of course, always danger that we may not solve it aright; but to refuse to undertake the solution simply renders it certain that we cannot possibly solve it aright.

For if he who resolveth bravely oftentimes falleth short, how shall it be with him who resolveth rarely or feebly?

All authority is in the throne; and what is the throne? This wooden frame covered with velvet? No, I am the throne.

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

The best way to predict your future is to create it.

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.

Men at some time are masters of their fates:The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

A man is great by deeds, not by birth. Even a drop of poison can cause destruction; one does not need a large amount.

Be ever active in the management of the economy, because the root of wealth is economic activity; inactivity brings material distress.

It is better to be making the news than taking it; to be an actor rather than a critic.

I think it all comes down to motivation. If you really want to do something, you will work hard for it.

To borrow a simile from the football field, we believe that men must play fair, but that there must be no shirking, and that the success can only come to the player who hits the line hard.

Conquering the world on horseback is easy; it is dismounting and governing that is hard.

It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half of the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.

There is a limit to the time assigned you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and never return.

Do not let anyone else run your business.

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

But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.

To sit home, read one's favorite paper, and scoff at the misdeeds of the men who do things is easy, but it is markedly ineffective. It is what evil men count upon the good men's doing.

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.