If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
-- Henry David Thoreau
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
-- Charles Kingsley
When enthusiasm is inspired by reason, controlled by caution, sound in theory, practical in application, reflects confidence, spreads good cheer, raises morale, inspires associates, arouses loyalty, and laughs at adversity, it is beyond price.
-- Coleman Cox
They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. Someone to love, something to do, and something to
hope for.
-- Tom Bodett
If passion drives, let reason hold the reins.
-- Benjamin Franklin
Recipe for the perfect parent? "A heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
-- Charles Dickens, "Our Mutual Friend", 1864
I think I'd like to be remembered as someone who beat the odds through just plain determination... that I persevered. Because I think that being somewhat of a pest to life, constantly plaguing and pursuing, will bring results."
-- Actor Sylvester Stallone, who rose to fame and fortune from a childhood
spent in New York's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood
Uncommon valor was a common virtue.
-- Saying etched into the Iwo Jimo Memorial, in tribute to the marines
who fought in World War Two. Arlington, Virginia, USA
You are beaten to earth? Well, well, what's that? Come up with a smiling face. It's nothing against you to fall down flat, but to lie there, that's disgrace.
-- author unknown
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
-- Winston Churchill
The world is good-natured to people who are good natured.
-- William Makepeace Thackeray
"They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea."
-- Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, lawyer and politician, from his book "The Advancement of Learning"
To be what we are, and to become what
we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson, "Of Men and Books," 1882
That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end.
-- Lise Hand, describing the late Irish journalist Veronica Guerin
To be capable of steady friendship or lasting love are the two greatest proofs, not only of goodness of heart, but of strength of mind.
-- William Hazlitt, "Characteristics," 1823
There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.
-- Washington Irving, "The Sketch Book," 1820
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
-- Aristotle
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go.
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
-- Lyrics from "The Impossible Dream (The Quest)" by Joe Darion.
Doctors and scientists said that breaking the four-minute mile was impossible, that one would die in the attempt. Thus, when I got up from the
track after collapsing at the finish line, I figured I was dead.
-- Roger Bannister, after becoming the first person to break the four minute mile, 1952
“He doesn’t act like he thinks he is Mr. Wonderful. He always introduces himself, even though it’s obvious who he is. When you talk to him, you know he’s paying attention to you and not looking over your shoulder.”
-- Mary Anne Grafton-Rodgers describing John F. Kennedy, Jr.
