If a man does only what is required of him,
he is a slave.
If a man does more than is required of him,
he is a free man.
Chinese Proverb

Learn from yesterday,
live for today,
hope for tomorrow.
The important thing is to not stop questioning.
Albert Einstein

The better part of happiness is to wish to be what you are.
Desiderius Erasmus

The whole secret of a successful life is to find out what is one’s destiny to do,
and then do it.
Henry Ford

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.
Abraham Lincoln

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.
Albert Einstein

Originally posted 2009-05-13 02:19:25.

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always
pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and
less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and
stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.” — Mark Victor
Hansen

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a
solution everybody can understand.” — General Colin Powell

“No matter what size the bottle, the cream always came to the top.” — Charles Wilson

“We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace. It takes time to bring value to the marketplace, but we get
paid for the value, not the time.” — Jim Rohn

“You do not lead by hitting people over the head–that’s assault, not leadership.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Opportunities? They are all around us…there is power lying latent everywhere waiting for the observant eye to
discover it.” — Orison Swett Marden, 1850-1924, American Author, Founder of Success Magazine

“We are continually faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” — Lee Iococca

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” — Benjamin Disraeli

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” —
Thomas Edison

“A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way.” — Swahili Proverb

“You may delay, but time will not.” — Benjamin Franklin

“The majority of people meet with failure because they lack the persistence to create new plans to take the place
of failed plans.” — Mark Victor Hansen

“Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim, nor even extra brightness, but perseverance all can have.”
– Woodrow Wilson

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in very difficulty.” — Winston
Churchill

“You are always free to choose what you do with your life. To make changes in your future, make new choices
today.” — Brian Tracy

“The secret to productive goal setting is in establishing clearly defined goals, writing them down and then
focusing on them several times a day with words, pictures and emotions as if we’ve already achieved them.” —
Denis Waitley

“Minds are like parachutes, they only function when they are open.” — Sir James Dewar

“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his
mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.” —
Abraham Lincoln

“Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom
otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude
to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.” — Zig Ziglar

“You can’t hit a home run unless you step up to the plate. You can’t catch fish unless you put your line in the
water. You can’t reach your goals if you don’t try.” — Kathy Seligman

Originally posted 2009-08-26 03:36:03.

Last Paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address March 4, 1861

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth- stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Ending of Gettysburg Address November 19, 1863

“It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Excerpt from letter to Henry Pierce and others April 6, 1859

“This is a world of compensations; and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

—————————————————————————————————————–

The Ten Points First Published in 1916 Although some people have claimed that Lincoln wrote the “Ten Points,” these words were actually written by Reverend William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962):

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man’s initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

———————————————————————————————————————

Last Paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s 1st Inaugural Address March 4, 1861

“I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Last Paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address March 4, 1865

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan–to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

———————————————————————————————————————

Last Paragraph of Abraham Lincoln’s speech at Cooper Union in New York February 27, 1860

“Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Originally posted 2009-06-03 02:54:36.

 

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot

 

“Put  your  heart,  mind,   intellect,  and soul  even  to your  smallest  acts.  This  is  the secret of success.” – Swami Sivananda

 

“The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and  aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication.” – Cecil B. DeMille

 

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean.  It’s  perfect  when  it  arrives and puts   itself   in our  hands.   It  hopes we’ve  learned  something from yesterday.” – John Wayne

 

“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” – G.K. Chesterton

 

“The   difference   between   the   impossible   and   the   possible   lies   in   a   man’s  determination.” – Tommy Lasorda

 

“The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” -Mother Theresa

Originally posted 2009-03-20 02:27:06.

“ Character is the real foundation for all worthwhile success”
- John Hays Hammond

“Character is power; it makes friends, draws patronage and support, and opens a sure
way to wealth, honor, and happiness.”
- John Howe

“Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.”
- Elmer G. Letterman

“Our character is what we do when we think no one is looking.”
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

“To measure the man, measure his heart.”
- Malcolm Stevenson Forbes

“The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when
we don’t know what to do.”
- John Holt

“Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.”
- Elbert Hubbard

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and
suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
- Helen Keller

“A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world.
Everyone you meet is your mirror.”
- Ken Keys

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where
he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him
power.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“Bluntness is a virtue.”
- Allison Ling

“The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be
found out.”
- Thomas B. Macaulay

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else”
- Yogi Berra

“Our aspirations are our possibilities”
- Robert Browning

“Concentrate on finding your goal, then concentrate on reaching it.”
- Col. Michael Friedsam

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
- Lao-Tzu

“Determine that the thing can and shall be done, and then we shall find a way.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
- Les Brown

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently
believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” 
- Stephen A. Brennan

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
- Henry Ford

“This one step — choosing a goal and sticking to it — changes everything.”
- Scott Reed

“The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what
you want.”
- Ben Stein

AMBITION
Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say for one that I have no
other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem.
How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.

EDUCATION
A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the
key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and  facility,  for
successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved one

FREEDOM
Our  reliance  is  in  the  love  of  liberty  which  God  has  planted  in  our  bosoms.  Our  defense  is  in  the
preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere.

HONESTY
I believe it is an established maxim in morals that he who makes an assertion without knowing whether it is
true or false, is guilty of falsehood; and the accidental truth of the assertion, does not justify or excuse him.

WORK
Every man  is  proud  of what  he  does well;  and  no man  is  proud  of what  he  does  not  do well. With  the
former, his heart  is  in his work; and he will do twice as much of  it with  less fatigue. The  latter performs a
little  imperfectly,  looks at  it  in disgust, turns from  it, and  imagines himself exceedingly tired. The  little he
has done, comes to nothing, for Want of finishing.

“I am not bound to win but I am bound to be true; I am not bound to succeed but am
bound to live up to what light I have.” — Abraham Lincoln

“The basic goal-reaching principle is to understand that you go as far as you can see, and
when you get there you will always be able to see farther.” — Zig Ziglar

“Success equals goals; all else is commentary” — Brian Tracy

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about
the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”
- Buddha

“Make your decisions for your tomorrows not just your today’s.” — Patricia Fripp

“There are those of us who are always about to live. We are waiting until things change,
until there is more time, until we are less tired, until we get a promotion, until we settle
down — until, until, until. It always seems as if there is some major event that must occur
in our lives before we begin living.” — George Sheehan

“Do you want to be safe and good, or do you want to take a chance and be great?” —
Jimmy Johnson

“Time has no favorites…and it doesn’t become kinder to one over another…it just gives
us back…what we put into it…” — Doug Firebaugh

“The first qualification for success in my view is a strong work ethic.” — Henry Ford

“Your heart is the power core of all your success…no matter what you are desiring, if your heart isn’t in it…then
you will be without it.” — Doug Firebaugh

“What have you always wanted to do but been afraid to attempt? Whatever it is, it may be your greatest
opportunity in life.” — Brian Tracy

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to
change.” — Charles Darwin

“Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.” — W.C. Fields

“People begin to become successful the minute they decide to be.” — Harvey Mackay

“Confident people are willing to take risks; people who take risks develop self-confidence.” — Brian Tracy

“The three great essentials to achieving anything worthwhile are; first, hard work, second, stick-to-it-iveness, and
third, common sense. — Thomas Edison

“Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” — H. Jackson Browne

“One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears – by listening to them.” — Dean Rusk

“The only difference between a Good Day and a Bad Day Is your ATTITUDE!” — Dennis S. Brown

“No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself
or your life that you want to change.” — Barbara De Angelis

“Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” — Henry Ford 

Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.

Wayne Dyer

You and I are essentially infinite choice-makers. In every moment of our existence, we are in that field of all possibilities where we have access to n infinity of choices.

Deepak Chopra

You can have anything you want, if you want it badly enough.  You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

Abraham Lincoln

If you deliberately plan on being less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

Abraham H. Maslow