The less people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they’ll sleep at night.

History is simply a piece of paper covered with print: the main thing is to make history, not to write it.

No profession, trade, or calling, is overcrowded in the upper story. Wherever you find the most honest and intelligent merchant or banker, or the best lawyer, the best doctor, the best clergyman, the best shoemaker, carpenter, or anything else, that man is most sought for, and has always enough to do. As a nation, Americans are too superficial they are striving to get rich quickly, and do not generally do their business as substantially and thoroughly as they should, but whoever excels all others in his own line, if his habits are good and his integrity undoubted, cannot fail to secure abundant patronage and the wealth that naturally follows. Let your motto then always be Excelsior, for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.

In my temperance speeches, I have frequently been interrupted, and sometimes interrogated by opponents. I always take things coolly, let them have their say, and endeavor to give them a Roland for an Oliver.

Life is a competition, but it is not a race against anyone else. The real journey is against yourself and the true victory is being able to maintain your humanity.

Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public.

The public very properly shun all whose integrity is doubted. No matter how polite and pleasant and accommodating a man may be, none of us dare to deal with him if we suspect false weights and measures.

Men, women, and children who cannot live on gravity alone need something to satisfy their gayer, lighter moods and hours, and he who ministers to this want is, in my opinion, in a business established by the Creator of our nature. If he worthily fulfills his mission and amuses without corrupting, he need never feel that he has lived in vain.

The history of Money getting, which is commerce, is a history of civilization, and wherever trade has flourished most, there, too, have art and science produced the noblest fruits. In fact, as a general thing, Money getters are the benefactors of our race. To them, in a great measure, are we indebted for our institutions of learning and of art, our academies, colleges, and churches.

Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests.

Medicine is the means by which we poor feeble creatures try to keep from dying or aching.

We agreed that many a human life is sacrificed in sudden anger, because one or both the parties carry deadly weapons.

True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out go. Wear the old clothes a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new pair of gloves; mend the old dress live on plainer food if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen accident occurs, there will be a margin in favor of the income.

The greatest humbug of all is the man who believes or pretends to believe that everything and everybody are humbugs.

He who is without a newspaper is cut off from his species.

Go in confidence, study the rules, and above all things, study human nature for the proper study of mankind is man and you will find that while expanding the intellect and the muscles your enlarged experience will enable you to every day accumulate more and more principle which will increase itself by interest and otherwise until you arrive at a state of independence.

Money is in some respects life’s fire it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.

You reflect that he is worth twenty thousand dollars, and you incur no risk by endorsing his note; you like to accommodate him, and you lend your name without taking the precaution of getting security. Shortly after, he shows you the note with your endorsement canceled, and tells you, probably truly, that he made the profit that he expected by the operation, you reflect that you have done a good action, and the thought makes you feel happy. By and by, the same thing occurs again and you do it again; you have already fixed the impression in your mind that it is perfectly safe to indorse his notes without security.

The best kind of charity is to help those who are willing to help themselves. Promiscuous almsgiving, without inquiring into the worthiness of the applicant, is bad in every sense. But to search out and quietly assist those who are struggling for themselves, is the kind that scattereth and yet increaseth.

Every man should make his son or daughter learn some useful trade or profession, so that in these days of changing fortunes of being rich today and poor tomorrow they may have something tangible to fall back upon. This provision might save many persons from misery, who by some unexpected turn of fortune have lost all their means.

Writing lives forever, while you may not.

To me there is no picture so beautiful as smiling, bright eyed, happy children; no music so sweet as their clear and ringing laughter.

Remember the proverb of Solomon He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

Witchcraft is one of the most baseless, absurd, disgusting and silly of all the humbugs.

Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish, and the thing is easily done.

There is no such thing in the world as luck. There never was a man who could go out in the morning and find a purse full of gold in the street to day, and another tomorrow, and so on, day after day He may do so once in his life; but so far as mere luck is concerned, he is as liable to lose it as to find it.

I will loose my camel, and trust it to God! No, no, not so, said the prophet, tie thy camel, and trust it to God

As a general thing, I have not duped the world nor attempted to do so. I have generally given people the worth of their money twice told.

The great ambition should be to excel all others engaged in the same occupation.

Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business. Large stores, gilt signs, flaming advertisements, will all prove unavailing if you or your employees treat your patrons abruptly. The truth is, the more kind and liberal a man is, the more generous will be the patronage bestowed upon him.

The safest plan, and the one most sure of success for the young man starting in life, is to select the vocation which is most congenial to his tastes.

Every crowd has a silver lining.

The possession of a perfect knowledge of your business is an absolute necessity in order to insure success.

Whatever you do, do it with all your might. Work at it, early and late, in season and out of season, not leaving a stone unturned, and never deferring for a single hour that which can be done just as well now.

Dr. Franklin says it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes or furniture.

Clowns are the pegs on which the circus is hung.

The foundation of success in life is good health that is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick.

Without promotion, something terrible happens nothing.

Science is the pursuit of pure truth, and the systematizing of it.

Young men starting in life should avoid running into debt. There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt. It is a slavish position to get ill, yet we find many a young man, hardly out of his teens, running in debt. He meets a chum and says, Look at this I have got trusted for a new suit of clothes. He seems to look upon the clothes as so much given to him; well, it frequently is so, but, if he succeeds in paying and then gets trusted again, he is adopting a habit which will keep him in poverty through life. Debt robs a man of his self respect, and makes him almost despise himself.

Unless a man enters upon the vocation intended for him by nature, and best suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot succeed. I am glad to believe that the majority of persons do find their right vocation.

Let your motto then always be Excelsior, for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.

No man has a right to expect to succeed in life unless he understands his business, and nobody can understand his business thoroughly unless he learns it by personal application and experience

Be cautious and bold. 

In the United States, where we have more land than people, it is not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money.

I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.

The show business has all phases and grades of dignity, from the exhibition of a monkey to the exposition of that highest art in music or the drama which secures for the gifted secures a world wide fame princes well might envy.

Comfort is the enemy of progress.

Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.

No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else.

A lovely nook of forest scenery, or a grand rock, like a beautiful woman, depends for much of its attractiveness upon the attendance sense of freedom from whatever is low; upon a sense of purity and of romance.

The noblest art is that of making others happy.

Fortune always favors the brave, and never helps a man who does not help himself.