The quote database

Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interests.

Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind.

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.

It is because it is so much easier to shirk in civilization that it is difficult to get a standard of what your average man can do.

What pulled Scott through was character, sheer good grain, which ran over and under and through his weaker self and clamped it together.

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.

Hence the necessity that he should have been well trained in habits, who is to study, with any tolerable chance of profit, the principles of nobleness and justice and moral philosophy generally.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

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.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget,--but not himself, his own character.

The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not, as we feel in a thousand instances.

There are persons who possess the keenest perception for the most difficult problems, who are also not fearful of responsibility, and yet in cases of difficulty cannot come to a resolution.

Although our intellect always feels itself urged towards clearness and certainty, still our mind often feels itself attracted by uncertainty.

Mere intelligence is still not courage, for we often see the cleverest people devoid of resolution.

Independently of the rigours of attendance, I have ever been haunted with a sense (perhaps a mere caprice) of incapacity for business.

You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.

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

It’s also about knowing what you know and what you don’t know. It’s about being open to people and ideas.

If you love me you will; and if you do not, I shall never love myself.

Wretch, you are carrying about a god with you, and you know it not.

See that you do nothing like a sheep; but if you do, in this case also the man is lost.

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

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

I am by Nature made for my own good; not for my own evil.

To state the problem is to recall the truth that no single principle can answer all of life's complexities.