Historical Figures & Politicians

"The key to everything is patience. We shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it."

— Abraham Lincoln

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

— Abraham Lincoln

"You will never go higher than your thinking."

— Benjamin Disraeli

"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."

— Alexander the Great

"The secret of success is constancy to purpose."

— Benjamin Disraeli

"I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, I divide the world into the learners and the non-learners."

— Benjamin Barber

"Good ideas are not adopted automatically. They must be driven into practice with courageous impatience. Once implemented they can be easily overturned or subverted through apathy or lack of follow-up, so a continuous effort is required."

— Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

"Nearly all men can stand adversity but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

— Abraham Lincoln

"Don't criticize them; they are just what we would be under similar circumstances."

— Abraham Lincoln

"I make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided."

— Alexander Hamilton

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well."

— Alexander the Great

"Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."

— Barack Obama

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and diligence"

— Abigail Adams

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

— Abraham Lincoln

"The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. It's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere."

— Barack Obama

"Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius."

— Benjamin Disraeli

"I'm a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn't have the heart to let him down."

— Abraham Lincoln

"You can imprison a man, but not an idea. You can exile a man, but not an idea. You can kill a man, but not an idea."

— Benazir Bhutto

"Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain failure."

— Benjamin Disraeli

"When I do good, I feel good.' When I do bad, I feel bad."

— Abraham Lincoln

"Every person is endowed with God-given abilities, and we must cultivate every ounce of talent we have in order to maintain our pinnacle position in the world."

— Ben Carson

"You can have anything you want if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose."

— Abraham Lincoln

"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you, and in the end you are sure to succeed."

— Abraham Lincoln

"I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it."

— Ben Carson

"Patience will benefit you in every hour, every time and every opportunity. It helps you to overcome your opponent, howsoever strong he may be. It will help you in times of distress and hardships, in battles and in war and peace."

— Abd al-Karim Qasim

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts"

— Benjamin Disraeli