We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.

Recommended reading: Emerson: Essays and Lectures.

It is always during a passing state of mind that we make lasting resolutions.

Recommended reading: Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time.

In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.

Recommended reading: Louis Pasteur: Founder of Modern Medicine.

 

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.

Recommended reading: The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History.

Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way… you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.

Recommended reading: The Basic Works of Aristotle.

Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

Recommended reading: Walden.

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

Recommended reading: Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.

Recommended reading: Think and Grow Rich.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.

Recommended reading: God’s Debris: A Thought Experiment.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Recommended reading: The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History.