As to methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods.

Nature magically suits a man to his fortunes, by making them the fruit of his character.

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.

The vulgar call good fortune that which really is produced by the calculations of genius.

Always maintain your common sense and artful skills, and funnel it all into plain enough dealings.

The best of life is conversation.

I hear therefore with joy whatever is beginning to be said of the dignity and necessity of labor to every citizen. There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade, for learned as well as for unlearned hands. And labor is everywhere welcome; always we are invited to work; only be this limitation observed, that a man shall not for the sake of wider activity sacrifice any opinion to the popular judgments and modes of action.