The headline of an advertisement accounts for 60% of the pull of that ad. In the same way, the start of a letter makes or breaks the letter, because if the start does not interest your reader, he never gets down to the rest of your letter.

It is only when you despair of all ordinary means, it is only when you convince it that it must help you or you perish, that the seed of life in you bestirs itself to provide a new resource.

Think of things not as they are, but as they might be. Don't merely dream- but create.

People blame their environment, their education, their opportunities, their luck, for their condition. They are wrong. There is one person to blame — and only one — THEMSELVES.

The great thing is the start - to see an opportunity for service, and to start doing it, even though in the beginning you serve but a single customer - and him for nothing.

But fear - panic - knows no reason. It brings into being overnight the things that it fears. It is the greatest torment of humanity. Fear is, in short, the devil. It causes most of the sin, disaster, disease and misery of the world. It is the ravening lion roaming the earth seeking whom it may...devour. The only refuge is in the knowledge that it has no power other than the power you give it.

All of us have bad luck and good luck. The man who persists through the bad luck - who keeps right on going - is the man who is there when the good luck comes - and is ready to receive it.