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A man must have the courage to be himself, and not the shadow or the echo of another.

A man must so train his habits as to rely upon his own powers and depend upon his own courage in moments of emergency.

Courage may be displayed in everyday life as well as in historic fields of action.

Courage, combined with energy and perseverance, will overcome difficulties apparently insurmountable.

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a man further than any amount of intellect without it.

Difficulties may intimidate the weak, but they act only as a wholesome stimulus to men of resolution and valour.

Energy enables a man to force his way through irksome drudgery and dry details, and carries him onward and upward in every station in life.

Failure in any good cause is, however, honourable, whilst success in any bad cause is merely infamous.

In the pursuit of even the highest branches of human inquiry, the commoner qualities are found the most useful

Necessity, oftener than facility, has been the mother of invention; and the most prolific school of all has been the school of difficulty.

Patience lies at the root of all pleasures, as well as of all powers.

Such biographies increase a man's self-reliance by demonstrating what men can be, and what they can do; fortifying his hopes and elevating his aims in life.

The mere drudgery undergone by some men in carrying on their undertakings has been something extraordinary, but the drudgery they regarded as the price of success.

The road to success may be steep to climb, and it puts to the proof the energies of him who would reach the summit.

What is done in business must be well done; for it is better to accomplish perfectly a small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much.

With perseverance, the very odds and ends of time may be worked up into results of the greatest value.

Work educates the body, as study educates the mind; and that is the best state of society in which there is some work for every man's leisure, and some leisure for every man's work.

Work in moderation is healthy, as well as agreeable to the human constitution.

hope, which is the companion of power, and the mother of success; for whoso hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles.

Self-respect, originating in self-love, instigates the first step of improvement.

There is a dignity in the very effort to save with a worthy purpose, even though the attempt should not be crowned with eventual success.

Thrift does not require superior courage, nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman virtue.

A man's life is to be measured by what he does in it, and what he feels in it.

Great evils are in some cases only to be met by resistance; they cannot be wept down, but must be battled down.

Nothing can be more certain than that the character can only be sustained and strengthened by its own energetic action.