Mask your brightness. Be at one with the dust of the earth. This is primal union.

Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habit.

Those who are right do not argue. Those who argue are not right.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

One who believes in himself has no need to convince others.

He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

In order to eliminate the negative influences, simply ignore them.

Let your workings remain a mystery. Just show people the results.

The leader is a teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.

When all is said and done all anyone has left is their integrity at their core... Don't give that away too.

When the dream that was no longer can be, you have to dream a different dream.

Causes of Civil War are also, that the Wealth of the Nation is in too few mens hands, and that no certain means are provided to keep all men from a necessity either to beg, or steal, or be Souldiers.

I'm a great believer in people and their untapped potential.

When the world is storm-driven and bad things happen, then we need to know all the strong fortresses of the spirit which men have built through the ages.

My mission is not to forbid French art. If the quality is there, I buy; if the quality isn't there, I don't.

The Golden Rule finds no limit of application in business.

If slavery, as a national evil, is to be abolished, and it be just that it be done at the national expense, the amount of the expense is not a paramount consideration.

One of the central memories of my childhood is of hunting - not well; I am a terrible shot - quail and dove and grouse on a farm on the Tennessee River.

I can take any amount of criticism, as long as it is unqualified praise.