"It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever." -- Philip Adams

"There is one piece of advice, in a life of study, which I think no one will object to; and that is, every now and then to be completely idle - to do nothing at all." -- Sydney Smith

"For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pity that you use it so little." -- Rachel Carson

"Things are only impossible until they aren't" -- Captain Jean Luc Picard, "Star Trek: The Next Generation"

"Give not over thy soul to sorrow; and afflict not thyself in thy own counsel. Gladness of heart is the life of man and the joyfulness of man is length of days." -- Ecclesiasticus

"When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me." -- M. Somerset Maugham, "Of Human Bondage", 1915

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present." -- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 200 A.D.

"Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." -- Calvin Coolidge

"Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can." -- John Wesley

"Dwell not upon thy weariness, thy strength shall be according to the measure of thy desire." -- Arab Proverb

"You better live your best and act your best and think your best today, for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow." -- Harriet Marineau

"He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestow should never remember it." -- Pierre Charron "One must not lose desires. They are mighty stimulants to creativeness, to love, and to long life." -- Alexander Bogomoletz

"There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness." -- Josh Billings

"Remember that what you believe will depend very much on what you are." -- Noah Porter

"Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash." -- George S. Patton

"Facing it, always facing it, that the way to get through. Face it." -- Joseph Conrad

"Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work." -- H. L. Hunt

"Make your life a mission - not an intermission." -- Arnold Glasgow

"When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within." -- Epictetus

"Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance." -- William Wirt

"The words 'I am...' are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you're claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you." -- A. L. Kitselman

"Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." -- Abigail Adams, 1780

"Beware of dissipating your powers; strive constantly to concentrate them. Genius thinks it can do whatever it sees others doing, but is sure to repent of every ill-judged outlay." -- Goethe

"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens." -- Epictetus

"Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe." -- Robert Service

"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life." ---Dr. David M. Burns

"It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen."-- Aristotle, "Nicomachean Ethics,"

"You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through." ----Rosalynn Carter

"If you think you, then you can. And if you think that you can't, then you are right." ---Mary Kay Ash

"Never say never, for if live long enough, chances are you will not be able to abide by its restrictions. Never is a long, undependable time, life is too full of rich possibilites to have restrictions placed upon it." ---Gloria Swanson

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better." -- King Whitney, Jr.

"...in order that a man may be happy, it is necessary that he should not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work." -- John Ruskin

"You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself." -- Alan Alda

"Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech." -- Martin Fraquhar Tupper

"If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old." -- Ed Howe

"The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think." -- John Burroughs

"When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves." -- Confucius

"I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer." -- Colette, The Last of Cheri, 1926

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success. Talent is only a starting point in this business. You've got to keep on working that talent. Someday I'll reach for it and it won't be there." -- Irving Berlin

"Treat the other man's faith gently; it is all he has to believe with. His mind was created for his own thoughts, not yours or mine." -- Henry S. Haskins "It is in his pleasure that a man really lives; it is from his leisure that he constructs the true fabric of self." -- Agnes Repplier

"The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is 'look under foot.' You are always nearer the divine and the true sources of your power than you think." -- John Burroughs

"To see what is right, and not to do it, is want of courage or of principle." -- Confucius

"If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor." -- Albert Einstein

"Every sweet has its sour; every evil its good." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Give all to love; obey thy heart." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes." -- Jawaharlal Nehru

"Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist:Give me leave to do my utmost." -- Isak Dineson, "Babette's Feast"

"Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not fearful of happiness." -- Lao-tsze

"Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and however early a man's training begins,it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly." -- Thomas Henry Huxley

"Do not fear death so much, but rather the inadequate life." -- Bertolt Brecht, The Mother, 1932

"Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it." -- William Penn

"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." -- Charles Kingsley

"If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone." -- Benjamin Franklin

"Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which respect yourself. His counsel may then be useful where your own self-love might impair your judgment." -- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends." -- Japanese Proverb

"Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath." -- Solon

"To accomplish our destiny it is not enough to merely guard prudently against road accidents. We must also cover before nightfall the distance assigned to each of us." -- Alexis Carrel

"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star." -- Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Physiologie du Gout, 1825

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night." -- Edgar Allan Poe, "Eleanora," 1842 "People fail forward to success." -- Mary Kay Ash

"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not evenlisten, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." -- Franz Kafka

"Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic." -- Anise Nin, The Diary of Anise Nin, volume 4, 1944-1947

"Man is what he believes." -- Anton Chekhov

"So long as we live among men, let us cherish humanity." -- Andre Gide

"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost." -- Thomas J. Watson

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." -- Andre Gide

"Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so." -- Jacopo Sannazaro

"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, message for Jefferson Day, April 13, 1945

"The only factor becoming scarce in a world of abundance is human attention." -- Kevin Kelly, in "Wired"

"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company." -- George Washington

"Never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning." -- Anthony Trollope

"Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love." -- Socrates

"Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think." -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it." -- Cicero, On Friendship, 44 B.C.

"Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." -- Winston Churchill

"Far better to think historically, to remember the lessons of the past. Thus, far better to conceive of power as consisting in part of the knowledge of when not to use all the power you have. Far better to be one who knows that if you reserve the power not to use all your power, you will lead others far more successfully and well." -- A. Bartlett Giamatti, President of Yale University

"Get pleasure out of life...as much as you can. Nobody every died from pleasure." -- Sol Hurok

"No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently." -- Agnes DeMille