My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

All I have learned, I learned from books.

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.

I am not concerned that you have fallen — I am concerned that you arise.

I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

I don’t know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.

You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.

Life is hard but so very beautiful

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

Human action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed.

The best way to predict your future is to create it

I distrust the wisdom if not the sincerity of friends who would hold my hands while my enemies stab me.

If we have no friends, we have no pleasure; and if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the loss.

My father taught me to work, but not to love it. I never did like to work, and I don’t deny it. I’d rather read, tell stories, crack jokes, talk, laugh—anything but work.

I can make a General in five minutes but a good horse is hard to replace.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.