First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
The man who is unwilling to exert himself almost always convicts himself as unworthy of good, since we gain every good by toil.
Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else.
If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.
Make it your goal never to fail in your desires or experience things you would rather avoid; try never to err in impulse and repulsion; aim to be perfect also in the practice of attention and withholding judgment.
Let all your efforts be directed to something, let it keep that end in view. It's not activity that disturbs people, but false conceptions of things that drive them mad.
I cannot call somebody ‘hard-working’ knowing only that they read and write. Even if ‘all night long’ is added, I cannot say it – not until I know the focus of all this energy.
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.