All quotes

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.

Each halt in his progress has been but a pause before a mighty leap forward.

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

Man is only what he becomes--profound truth; but he becomes only what he is, truth still more profound.

To love, to dream, to feel, to learn, to understand--all these are possible to me if only I may be relieved from willing.

To reform one's maxims is nothing: it is but to change the title of the book. To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation

Do not then vainly imagine that you can obtain the heavenly possessions without making an effort.

Idleness and a strong will cannot go together, and procrastination is a total barrier to the acquisition of purposeful action.

A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it.

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.

Dreams are the seedlings of realities.

Huxley declares that the sense of uselessness is the severest shock which the human system can sustain, and that if persistently sustained, it results in atrophy of function.

She is besotted with innocent little ambitions, and does not understand this apparent waste of herself, this elaborate preparation, if no work is provided for her.

Young people themselves often resent this attitude on the part of their elders; they feel set aside and belittled as if they were denied the common human experiences.

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer.

A night's sleep, the sovereign remedy for the smaller vexations of life, had no effect on it.

At first I hoped that the cloud would pass away of itself; but it did not.

At this my heart sank within me: the whole foundation on which my life was constructed fell down.

But the time came when I awakened from this as from a dream.

The end had ceased to charm, and how could there ever again be any interest in the means?

I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself.

Find your sole delight and recreation in proceeding from one unselfish action to another, with God ever in mind.

In rest you go beyond these limits, and beyond what is enough; but in action you do not fill the measure, and remain well within your powers.

Is pleasure, then, the object of your being, and not action, and the exercise of your powers?