“If something is rubbing so hard against you, you can be sure it's working on you.”

“If you want something you can have it, but only if you want everything that goes with it, including all the hard work and the despair, and only if you're willing to risk failure.”

“The only way to do the best you can is to work as hard as you can.”

“Try to work so hard for your benefit that you can compress a week into one day.”

“Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want.”

“Anything that works against you can also work for you once you understand the Principle of Reverse.”

“You can love a woman. To admire her is hard. You are not dealing with something important.”

“The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.”

“Instead of supposing that a work of art must be something that all can behold—a poem, a painting, a book, a great building—consider making your own life a work of art. You have yourself to begin with, and a time of uncertain duration to work on it. You do not have to be what you are, and even though you may be quite content with who you are, it will not be hard for you to think of something much greater that you might become. It need not be something spectacular or even something that will attract notice from others. What it will be is a kind of excellence that you project for yourself, and then attain—something that you can take a look at, with honest self-appraisal, and be proud of.”

“If you act like you can do something, then it will work.”