“Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.”

“Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations”

“Nobody suceeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations.”

“It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

“the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

“The best chess-player in Christendom may be little more than the best player of chess; but proficiency in whist implies capacity for success in all those more important undertakings where mind struggles with mind.”

“Ralph... would treat the day's decisions as though he were playing chess. The only trouble was that he would never be a very good chess player.”