There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake.

There's no grander sight in the world than that of a person fired with a great purpose, dominated by one unwavering aim.

It is the youth who sees a great opportunity hidden in just these simple services, who sees a very uncommon situation, a humble position, who gets on in the world.

This is the test of your manhood: How much is there left in you after you have lost everything outside of yourself?

No man can hope to accomplish anything great in this world until he throws his whole soul, flings the force of his whole life, into it. It is not enough simply to have a general desire to accomplish something. There is but one way to do that; and that is, to try to be somebody with all the concentrated energy we can muster.

People who have accomplished work worthwhile have had a very high sense of the way to do things. They have not been content with mediocrity. They have not confined themselves to the beaten tracks; they have never been satisfied to do things just as others so them, but always a little better. They always pushed things that came to their hands a little higher up, this little farther on, that counts in the quality of life's work. It is constant effort to be first-class in everything one attempts that conquers the heights of excellence.

Every great man has become great, every successful man has succeeded, in proportion as he has confined his powers to one particular channel.