Above all be of single aim; have a legitimate and useful purpose, and devote yourself unreservedly to it.

The wise man should restrain his senses like the crane and accomplish his purpose with due knowledge of his place, time and ability.

Most of what matters in our lives takes place in our absence.

It is hard to fight desire; but to control it is the sign of a reasonable man.

It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges.

And this sensitivity will create new friendships for you - friendships with trees, with birds, with animals, with mountains, with rivers, with oceans, with stars. Life becomes richer as love grows.

Never do anything when you are in a temper, for you will do everything wrong.

Take care of the pieces well. The whole will take care of itself.

If you don't know where you're from, you'll have a hard time saying where you're going.

The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.

No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.

A person who spends more than he earns is a fool

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

Good means not merely not to do wrong, but rather not to desire to do wrong.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

Fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind.

Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.

In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.