“There are only two ways of getting on in the world either by one's own industry, or by the stupidity of others
“And while the law (of competition) may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department
“Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs
“The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled
“No power in society, no hardship in your condition can depress you, keep you down, in knowledge, power, virtue, influence, but by your own consent.
“Youth is the period in which a man can be hopeless. The end of every episode is the end of the world. But the power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged.
“In the survival of favoured individuals and races, during the constantly-recurring struggle for existence, we see a powerful and ever-acting form of selection
“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change
“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming
“The greatest works are done by the ones. The hundreds do not often do much, the companies never; it is the units, the single individuals, that are the power and the might.