"That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong."
"When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier."
"After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one."
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."











-- Martin Luther King Jr.
"Act as if you have already achieved your goal and it is yours."
"The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity."
"Stoop and you'll be stepped on; stand tall and you'll be shot at."
"We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs."
"Trials, temptations, disappointments -- all these are helps instead of hindrances, if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fibre of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before."
"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
"Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way...you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions."
"The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position."
"Your opponent, in the end, is never really the player on the other side of the net, or the swimmer in the next lane, or the team on the other side of the field, or even the bar you must high-jump. Your opponent is yourself, your negative internal voices, your level of determination."
"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict."











-- William Ellery Channing
"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm ... As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."
"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."
"Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crisis that didn't make me stronger."
"Confidence on the outside begins by living with integrity on the inside."
"Yes, there are times when something is legitimately not our fault. Blaming others, however, keeps us in a stuck state and is ultimately rough on our own self-esteem."
"Con men may get away with lies, manipulators with stepping on anyone who get in their way, the bad may become rich, and a phony may receive the highest accolades. But every gesture we make, every word we utter, every step we take makes a footprint on our souls."
"The best portion of a good man's life is in his little nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love."
"A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying that he is wiser today than he was yesterday."
"The height of your accomplishments will equal the depth of your convictions."
"Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not."
"The truest help we can render an afflicted man is not to take his burden from him, but to call out his best energy, that he may be able to bear the burden."
"Those who stand for nothing fall for anything."
"Character is doing right when no one is looking."
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting."
"Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom."
"Be strong in body, clean in mind, lofty in ideals."
"I will speak ill of no one and speak all the good I know of everybody."
"The sages do not consider that making no mistakes is a blessing. They believe, rather, that the great virtue of man lies in his ability to correct his mistakes and continually make a new man of himself."
"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals."
"Nature does not bestow virtue; to be good is an art."
"Be a fountain, not a drain."
"There's folks 'ud stand on their heads and then say the fault was i' their boots."
"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends."
"It really doesn't matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on."
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."
"People who are always making allowances for themselves soon go bankrupt."
"What you are will show in what you do."
"Son, always tell the truth. Then you'll never have to remember what you said the last time."
"My father used to say, 'Let them see you and not the suit. That should be secondary.'"