Echoes

Deeds, not words.

What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.

Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.

Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.

Of a surety, at the Day of Judgment it will be demanded of us, not what we have read, but what we have done; not how well we have spoken, but how holily we have lived.

I would prefer inarticulate wisdom to loquacious foolishness.

All praise of virtue consists in action.

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.

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

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

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

My life is my message.

Instead of announcing that what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself.

Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty.

Bear in mind, that if through toil you accomplish a good deed, that toil will quickly pass from you, the good deed will not leave you so long as you live; but if through pleasure you do anything dishonourable, the pleasure will quickly pass away, that dishonourable act will remain with you for ever.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.