The quote database

I won't have a problem with you if you aim high and miss, but I will have a real problem if you aim low and hit.

Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valour.

Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action.

A man must so train his habits as to rely upon his own powers and depend upon his own courage in moments of emergency.

Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.

Courage, combined with energy and perseverance, will overcome difficulties apparently insurmountable.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

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

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming

The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

There is little place in active life for the timid good man.

We have it in our power to begin the world over again

By flight alone we cannot overcome, but by endurance and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies.

No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

My sensations as we approached what I supposed might be 'a field of battle' were anything but agreeable.

I would have given anything then to have been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on.

Fortune favours the brave.

If you want to change the world don’t ever, ever ring the bell.

If you want to change the world sometimes you have to slide down the obstacle head first.

But if you want to change the world, don’t be afraid of the circuses.

If you want to change the world, you must be your very best in the darkest moment.

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

Despair lames most people, but it wakes others fully up.

It is notorious that a single successful effort of moral volition, such as saying 'no' to some habitual temptation, or performing some courageous act, will launch a man on a higher level of energy for days and weeks, will give him a new range of power.