The quote database

Every evening he should examine his heart as to what he has done to see whether he has gained or lost in his spiritual capital.

No man is so formed that he can be left entirely to himself, to go his own ways; everyone needs to be guided by a preconceived plan, and to follow certain general rules.

Your life will be wasted if you go away from here and have not learned that the greatest lesson of all is the lesson of brotherly love, of usefulness and of charity.

So I ask you today: How many ghosts are going to be around your bed when your time comes?

If I’m going to fall, I don’t want to fall back on anything, except my faith.

Does it seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good and happy?

it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected

In this time of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will, strength, and wise leadership.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Life is not a popularity contest. Be brave, take the hill but first, answer the question, “What is my hill?”

It’s just as important where we are not as it is where we are.

No one can pursue a worthy object steadily and persistently with all the powers of his mind, and yet make his life a failure.

All the toys that infatuate men, and which they play for

To ask to see some fruit of our endeavour is but a transcendental way of serving for reward; and what we take to be contempt of self is only greed of hire.

There are those who have gone, for want of this self-knowledge, strangely out of their way, and others who have never found it.

With such aids and an honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country the manifold duties devolved upon me.