All quotes

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better

There is little place in active life for the timid good man.

almost any man can do a great deal, if he will, by getting the utmost possible service out of the qualities that he actually possesses

Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?

I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make

When right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose positions will not command a view of the whole ground.

It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service.

If I felt that there is to be sole responsibility in the Executive for the America of tomorrow I should shrink from the burden.

But the true competition is the competition of the individual with himself,--his present seeking to excel his past.

If we seek ever to surpass ourselves, we are moving on a uniform line of progress, that gives a harmonious unifying to our growth in all its parts.

Life is but a succession of opportunities. They are for good or evil,--as we make them.

Man can develop his self-reliance by seeking constantly to surpass himself.

Self-confidence sees the possibilities of the individual; self-reliance realizes them.

To him, defeat is no more than passing through a tunnel is to a traveller,--he knows he must emerge again into the sunlight.

If you want to change the world, measure a person by the size of their heart, not the size of their flippers.

SEAL training was a great equalizer. Nothing mattered but your will to succeed. Not your color, not your ethnic background, not your education and not your social status.

The power of one person — Washington, Lincoln, King, Mandela and even a young girl from Pakistan, Malala — one person can change the world by giving people hope.

Friendships are frequently taken up on some sudden sympathy, and we see only as much as we please of one another's characters afterwards.

Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility.

A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed.

Surely it is hardly fitting that the ruler should be baser than the ruled.

With such aids and an honest purpose to do whatever is right, I hope to execute diligently, impartially, and for the best interests of the country the manifold duties devolved upon me.

Great distance in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and render quiescent the human mind.

Men of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts of the Constitution, but there are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt.

It is because it is so much easier to shirk in civilization that it is difficult to get a standard of what your average man can do.