“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place. Once you actually begin work on a valuable task, you seem to be naturally motivated to continue.”

“[death]...the abyss from where no traveler is permitted to return”

“Science is learning to control everything but man.”

“Face the giants in your life, slay them, and move on. Do not be daunted by the mistakes and failures in your life.”

“You may have something wise to say, but HOW YOU SAY IT may make it unwise! RECREATE it, else you'll REGRET it!”

“We have not yet learned that we are more powerful on our knees than behind the most powerful weapons that can be developed.”

“Great character is not developed through ease and convenience but through doing NOW what needs to be done no matter how difficult it”

“We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn't stand it. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school, and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds so that they control their own lives? God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise. Turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three TV programs during the week. And with all that spare time read two books a piece from the Detroit Public Libraries and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read but we didn't know that. I just hated this. My friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. My mother didn't care. But after a while I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but between the covers of those books I could go anywhere. I could be anybody. I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you, and what happens to you in life, is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at that point I didn't hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me. Made all the difference.” 

“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one's weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”

“I could not imagine that the future I was walking toward could compare in any way to the past that I was leaving behind.”

“Do we know our poor people? Do we know the poor in our house, in our family? Perhaps they are not hungry for a piece of bread. Perhaps our children, husband, wife, are not hungry, or naked, or dispossessed, but are you sure there is no one there who feels unwanted, deprived of affection?” 

“Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistake of our own period. And that means the old books.”

“I have waked up.”

“There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”

“One of Henry Ford’s most outstanding qualities is his habit of reaching decisions quickly and defi­nitely, and changing them slowly. This quality is so pronounced in Mr. Ford, that it has given him the reputation of being obstinate.”