“Inside us there is something that has no name, that something is what we are.”

- José Saramago

“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect."

- Margaret Mitchell as Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind (1936)

"I know that I have the ability to achieve the object of my Definite Purpose in life, therefore, I DEMAND of myself persistent, continuous action toward its attainment, and I here and now promise to render such action."

- Napoleon Hill

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

- Pablo Picasso

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."

- Bernice Johnson Reagon

"Slight not what's near through aiming at what's far."

- Euripides

“Only one thing registers on the subconscious mind: repetitive application - practice. What you practice is what you manifest.”

- Fay Weldon

"Some succeed because they are destined to, but most succeed because they are determined to."

- Henry van Dyke

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”

- Stephen King

"The difference in people is their standards. PERIOD!"

"We all get what we tolerate." - Tony Robbins

“The only one who can beat me is me.”

- Michael Johnson

“The past cannot be cured.”

- Queen Elizabeth I

“Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.”

- Charles F. Kettering

"Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them and they flew."

- Guillaume Apollinaire

“There are countless ways of attaining greatness, but any road to reaching one's maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence and a rejection of mediocrity.”

- Buck Rodgers

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.”

- Garrison Keillor

“This ability to conquer oneself is no doubt the most precious of all things sports bestows.”

- Olga Korbut

A Splendid Torch

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

- George Bernard Shaw

"You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment."

- Henry David Thoreau

"We keep score in life because it matters. It counts. Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities, because they fear failure. They don’t understand commitment. When you learn to keep fighting in the face of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do.”

- Pat Summitt

"I will not be modest. Humble, as much as you like, but not modest. Modesty is the virtue of the lukewarm."

- Jean-Paul Sartre

“I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.”

- Nikki Giovanni

“Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Non performance can always be explained away.”

- Harold S. Geneen

“Pain is a merciful thing – if it lasts without interruption, it dulls itself.”

- Emil Zatopek

"Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile."

- Bertrand Russell