Echoes

The quality I look for most is optimism: especially optimism in the face of reverses and apparent defeat.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope.

While I breathe, I hope.

Keep your face always toward the sunshine — and shadows will fall behind you.

Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.

Hope is the dream of a waking man.

Never despair.

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don't have the strength.

I will either find a way or make one.

Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

I will either find a way, or make one.

Take a step forward, lads. It will be easier that way.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.

Through endurance we conquer.

We have surmounted all the perils and endured all the agonies of the past. We shall provide against and thus prevail over the dangers and problems of the future, withhold no sacrifice, grudge no toil, seek no sordid gain, fear no foe. All will be well. We have, I believe, within us the life-strength and guiding light by which the tormented world around us may find the harbour of safety, after a storm-beaten voyage.

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

There are two things that I want you to make up your minds to: first, that you are going to have a good time as long as you live – I have no use for the sour-faced man – and next, that you are going to do something worthwhile, that you are going to work hard and do the things you set out to do.

Valor is stability, not of legs and arms, but of courage and the soul.

Character is the virtue of hard times.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

That which does not kill us makes us stronger.

Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.