Words that inspire me

"The mark of Mediocrity is to look for precedent."

"Europe was created by History.  America was created by Philosophy."

It makes no difference if I burn my bridges behind me - I never retreat.

"A bad system will beat a good person every time."

"We cannot Direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails!"

"Between Stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

"The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything."

"I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work."

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly"

"Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm"

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them."

"When you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls, who neither know victory nor defeat.”

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”