“It's not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It's because we dare not venture that they are difficult.”

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

“Soft living imposes on us the penalty of debility; we cease to be able to do the things we've long been grudging about doing.”

“It is not that we have so little time but that we lose so much. ... The life we receive is not short but we make it so; we are not ill provided but use what we have wastefully.”

“No good thing renders its possessor happy, unless his mind is reconciled to the possibility of loss; nothing, however, is lost with less discomfort than that which, when lost, cannot be missed.”

“Life will follow the path it started upon, and will neither reverse nor check its course; it will make no noise, it will not remind you of its swiftness. Silent it will glide on; it will not prolong itself at the command of a king, or at the applause of the populace. Just as it was started on its first day, so it will run; nowhere will it turn aside, nowhere will it delay.”

“If we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago.”