1
Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interests.
Abraham Lincolnverified·Address before the Washingtonian Temperance Society, Springfield, Illinois·February 22, 1842
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2
If you are a brave man you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery.
3
What pulled Scott through was character, sheer good grain, which ran over and under and through his weaker self and clamped it together.
4
Somehow in judging polar life you must discount compulsory endurance; and find out what a man can shirk, remembering always that it is a sledging life which is the hardest test.
5
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Wrongly attributed
This is Will Durant, not Aristotle, and Durant is not translating -- he is summarising the Nicomachean Ethics in his own words and marking the difference by dropping the quotation marks he uses on either side of it. The nearest thing in Aristotle is that virtues are formed in a man by his doing the actions, which Durant does put in quotation marks in the same sentence. The memorable half is the half Durant wrote. It usually circulates with a therefore inserted and the excellence turned into a moral instruction, neither of which is in the book.
6
The beginning of wise living lies in the control of the brain by the will; so that the brain may act according to the precepts which the brain itself gives.
7
While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason.
8
My experience has been that the time to test a true gentleman is to observe him when he is in contact with individuals of a race that is less fortunate than his own.
9
Resolution is an act of courage in single instances, and if it becomes a characteristic trait, it is a habit of the mind.
10
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will
11
What we do modifies us more than what is done to us.
12
The spirit of personal independence in the women of to-day is sure proof that a change has come.
13
What you imagine, you will think, and what you think, you will become.
14
After all is said, if the young people have an earnest purpose in life it is easy to plan a method of living and to carry it out.
15
Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the truest sense.
16
The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.
17
It is circumstances (difficulties) which show what men are.
18
If I have set my admiration on the poor body, I have given myself up to be a slave; if on my poor possessions, I also make myself a slave.
19
Wretch, you are carrying about a god with you, and you know it not.
20
Man should make an art of thinking.
21
If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for.
22
The object of the game of life is to see clearly one’s good and to obliterate all mental pictures of evil.
23
Fear is only inverted faith; it is faith in evil instead of good.
24
Sometimes we fail to hear or heed these voices of freedom because to us the privilege of our freedom is such an old, old story.
25
Finally we must have courage and self-confidence to cling to our own methods and conceptions of human society. After all, the greatest danger that can befall us in coping with this problem of Soviet communism, is that we shall allow ourselves to become like those with whom we are coping.
George F. Kennanverified·Telegram from the Chargé in the Soviet Union to the Secretary of State (the Long Telegram)·February 22, 1946