“Where you are now is as a result of either your choice or someone’s choice. If you neglect the ideas of choosing the ultimate things for yourself, someone will hire you by choosing the average thing for you.”

“Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.”

“Great minds have purposes; others have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; but great minds rise above them.”

“The very act of visualizing yourself performing at your best prior to any event or activity will improve your performance.”

“I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living.”

“The bottom line was that we have only ourselves to blame. We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities”

“True success is when you reach back and bring somebody along with you.”

“I like to say, “Nothing good happens accidently.” You can catch disease, but you cannot catch health.”

“The concept of progress acts as a protective mechanism to shield us from the terrors of the future. —”

“To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more compleatly deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knolege with the lies of the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false.” —Letter to John Norvell, 14 June 1807 [Works 10:417--18]” 

“But the princess had never seen the beautiful expression of her eyes; the expression that came into them when she was not thinking of herself. As is the case with everyone, her face assumed an affected, unnatural, ugly expression as soon as she looked in the looking glass.”

“I have my shield of faith.”

“If you haven't found something you're willing to die for, than you don't deserve to live”

“Men and women who give [Christ] first place find that there is no need for anxiety about this world’s goods.”

“And most important, listen.”