All quotes

Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting-point for future power and triumph.

More than once in my short life I have been struck by the value of the man who is blind to what appears to be a common-sense certainty: he achieves the impossible.

What pulled Scott through was character, sheer good grain, which ran over and under and through his weaker self and clamped it together.

The point is, every graduate here today has the training and the talent to succeed. But do you have guts to fail?

You will fail at some point in your life. Accept it. You will lose. You will embarrass yourself. You will suck at something. There is no doubt about it.

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.

As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.

Courage returns as we gaze; when we see what has been, we doubt no more that it can be again.

Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in every instance they have completely failed.

Joy deserted my heart, and for a long, long time I lived in doubt, anxiety and fear.

Nevertheless, he who has relied least on fortune is established the strongest.

Those who look into practical life will find that fortune is usually on the side of the industrious, as the winds and waves are on the side of the best navigators.