Help thyself, and God will help thee.
—George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh Anglican Poet, Orator, Clergyman
The foundations which we would dig about and find are within us, like the Kingdom of Heaven, rather than without.
—Samuel Butler
Every man is the architect of his own future.
—Anonymous
God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into the nest.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Make good use of bad rubbish.
—Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010) British Children’s Writer
I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued adviser, who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, What have I to do with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within? my friend suggested, — “But these impulses may be from below, not from above”. I replied, “They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil’s child, I will live then from the Devil”. No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature. Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution, the only wrong what is against it.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Trust in God – but tie your camel tight.
—Persian Proverb
All times are beautiful for those who maintain joy within them; but there is no happy or favorable time for those with disconsolate or orphaned souls.
—Rosalia de Castro (1837–1885) Galician Romanticist Writer, Poet
He has not learned the first lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
We shun the rugged battle of fate where strength is born.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, which we ascribe to Heaven.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Don’t ask of your friends what you yourself can do.
—Ennius (c.239–169 BCE) Roman Poet
We must not calculate on the weather, or on fortune, but upon God and ourselves.—He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
Men seem neither to understand their riches nor their strength. Of the former they believe greater things than they should; of the latter, less.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
No man who is not willing to help himself has any right to apply to his friends, or to the gods.
—Demosthenes (384–322 BCE) Greek Statesman, Orator
He who is plenteously provided for from within needs but little from without.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
If a man wants his dreams to come true, he must wake up.
—Unknown
A wise man will make more opportunities, than he finds.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
There is no reality except the one contained within us.
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) German-born Swiss Novelist, Poet
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.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Let me listen to me and not to them.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
Happiness belongs to those who are sufficient unto themselves. For all external sources of happiness and pleasure are, by their very nature, highly uncertain, precarious, ephemeral, and subject to chance.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
You can’t get spoiled if you do your own ironing.
—Meryl Streep (b.1949) American Actor
Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916) American Idealist Philosopher
He that has no resources of mind, is more to be pitied than he who is in want of necessaries for the body; to be obliged to beg our daily happiness from others, bespeaks a more lamentable poverty than that of him who begs his daily bread.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Trust in God, but keep your powder dry.
—Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658) British Head of State, Military Leader
The Proverb warns that “You should not bite that hand that feeds you”. But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself.
—Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst
An axe at home saves hiring a carpenter.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The wise don’t expect to find life worth living; they make it that way.
—Unknown
Happiness is not in our circumstances, but in ourselves. It is not something we see, like a rainbow, or feel, like the heat of a fire. Happiness is something we are.
—John B. Sheerin (1907–92) American Catholic Columnist
There are three types of baseball players—those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.
—Tommy Lasorda (1927–2021) American Baseball Player, Coach
One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Chance never helps those who do not help themselves.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is what you are inside that matters. You, yourself, are your only real capital.
—Vladimir K. Zworykin (1889–1982) Russian-born American Physicist, Television Pioneer
If, after all, men cannot always make history have a meaning, they can always act so that their own lives have one.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.
—Buddhist Teaching
There is no man so low down that the cure for his condition does not lie strictly within himself.
—Thomas Masson (1866–1934) American Journalist, Humorist, Author
A fellow can’t keep people from having a bad opinion of him, but he can keep them from being right about it.
—Unknown
Debt is a trap which man sets and baits himself, and then deliberately gets into.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
We carry with us the wonders we seek without us.
—Thomas Browne (1605–82) English Author, Physician
It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself, and no one else, has made it.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
It is vain to ask of the gods what man is capable of supplying for himself.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple will crumble to dust.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher