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Unable to perceive a single chance of regaining their equality, they give up to despair, and allow themselves to fall below the dignity of human nature.

There is no doubt that a blizzard has a bewildering and numbing effect upon the brain of any one exposed to it.

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.

My aim is to show that only an inappreciable fraction of our ordered and sustained efforts is given to the business of actual living, as distinguished from the preliminaries to living.

A person is idle because his thoughts dwell habitually on the instant pleasures of idleness.

The brain can be disciplined by learning the habit of obedience.

The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career.

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

To have no regular work, no set sphere of activity--what a miserable thing it is!

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.

Who does not see from all this that man has gone astray, that he has fallen from his place, that he seeks it with disquiet, that he cannot regain it?

Cast down your bucket where you are.

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.

Everything is very simple in War, but the simplest thing is difficult.

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

My household-gods plant a terrible fixed foot, and are not rooted up without blood.

Be determined to get up, to reach the highest goal you have in view, and you will.

Your life will never be a straight path.

To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.

Our attempts to banish this importunate duty will only make it return upon us again and again, and every time in a shape more unpleasant than the former.

Tyrannous exaction brings on servile concealment; and that again calls forth tyrannous coercion.

Do you think I was born to live the life of an oyster, such as I do live here?

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.

Therefore we ought to exercise ourselves in small things, and beginning with them to proceed to the greater.

A man must shape himself to a new mark directly the old one goes to ground.