Those who strive are often watched by others who will take advantage of their defeat to benefit themselves.

Trust not your security to one who puts his own interests first.

What is so frightening is the extent to which we may idealize others when we have such trouble tolerating ourselves

We envy only those whom we feel ourselves to be like; we envy only members of our reference group. There are few successes more unendurable than those of our close friends.

Every person we envy holds out a piece of the jigsaw about our possible later achievements.

If we accord importance to the kind of portraits which surround us, it is because we fashion our lives according to their example, accepting aspects of ourselves if they concur with what others mention of themselves.

What we see evidence for in others, we will attend to within, what others are silent about, we may stay blind to or experience only in shame.

A winner is someone who can look in the mirror at the end of the day and say in pursuit of my goal and dreams I gave my best.

If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognizing my sinfulness at all. ... How can I possibly serve another person in unfeigned humility if I seriously regard his sinfulness as worse than my own?

It does not matter what others do, but what we do. Do that which is good, without fear, and without limit or reserve. What right have we to blame the government when we do not that which is good ourselves? How can we pass judgment on others when we invite the same condemnation on ourselves? If you want to be fearless, do good.

I can't tell anybody else how to run their life or their business, but I really believe I've got a good bead on myself.

We all have life-defining moments. They are like open-book tests, but we don't know we have been examined until it is over.