Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

Self-suggestion makes you master of yourself.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity.

Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving.

What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch?

When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand. It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.

Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.

We failed, but in the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing.

The education of a man is never completed until he dies.

A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none.

I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving.

In all my perplexities and distresses, the Bible has never failed to give me light and strength.

I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself.

The war... was an unnecessary condition of affairs, and might have been avoided if forebearance and wisdom had been practiced on both sides.

We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies, and to prevent our falling into greater disasters.

We should live, act, and say nothing to the injury of anyone. It is not only best as a matter of principle, but it is the path to peace and honor.

While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands who sees the end; who chooses to work by slow influences; & with whom two thousand years are but as a single day.

I tremble for my country when I hear of confidence expressed in me. I know too well my weakness, that our only hope is in God.

You must study to be frank with the world: Frankness is the child of honesty and courage.

Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret.

The best time to make friends is before you need them.

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

Only the educated are free.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.

All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.

God has entrusted me with myself.

It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.