“A man's every action is inevitably conditioned by what surrounds him and by his own body.”

“If the direction of a horse can be changed by a bit in his mouth, and the direction of a ship can be changed by its small rudder, then I believe the direction of our lives can be changed by the words we let roll over our tongue.

“man was designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.”

“Now God, who has made us, knows what we are and that our happiness lies in Him.”

“if you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you will never get it done”

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” 

“Confidence equals contentment with self; contentment is knowing you have all you need for the present circumstances.”

“Humans are almost always lonely.”

“I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty are on a steady advance. Even should the cloud of barbarism and despotism again obscure the science and liberties of Europe, this country remains to preserve and restore light and liberty to them. In, short, the flames kindled on the 4th of July, 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these and all who work for them.”

“I had an unconscious, vague sort of understanding that God loved me, but the love of God is meant to be a powerful force in our lives, one that will take us through even the most difficult trials into victory.”

“If a man lives, then he believes in something. If he didn't believe that one must live for something, then he wouldn't live. If he doesn't see and doesn't understand the illusoriness of the finite, he believes in the infinite; if he does understand the illusoriness of the finite, he must believe in the infinite without which one cannot live.”

“Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distress of everyone.”

“When we can learn from our own problems, we begin to deal with life. When we can learn from other people’s problems, we begin to master life.”

“God knows of love”

“If we recognize our talents and use them appropriately, and choose a field that uses those talents, we will rise to the top of our field.”