The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

In life, you need either inspiration or desperation.

It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

Go then if you must, but remember, no matter how foolish your deeds, those who love you will love you still.

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same Great Adventure.

The fact that the great scientist believed in flying machines was the one thing that encouraged us to begin our studies.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

He that can have patience can have what he will.

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.

Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.

People should pursue what they're passionate about. That will make them happier than pretty much anything else.

If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one.

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.

Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better.

I don't care what people think or say about me, I know who I am.

You can't learn in school what the world is going to do next year.

People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.