For seven years running, the first thing I've published each year is a compendium of 365 inspirational quotes (366 quotes in leap years).
Some of this year's quotes are classics. Others are more recent, or simply interesting or amusing. But they're all inspiring, and I think seeing them all together multiplies the effect.
Here's this year's edition: best inspirational quotes for 2023. Have a happy new year!
"Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing at all."
--Helen Keller
"Success isn't determined by how many times you win, but by how you play the week after you lose."
-- Pele
"Ignore your mistakes. The number one thing to worry about is: Am I doing what I'm good at?"
-- Max Levchin
"Intuitively, you would think the more fairness you get, the better. But that's not what we demonstrated. It's better if supervisors are a consistent jerk than if they're fair sometimes and not fair other times. People want to know what they can expect when they come into work."
--Fadel Matta
"Opportunities don't happen. You create them."
--Chris Grosser
"Nothing will work unless you do."
--Maya Angelou
"If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed."
--Admiral William McRaven
"Russia is a tough, cold place, so Russians grab at happiness with both hands. There's also a hint of suffering involved," she adds, "the idea that you will suffer for your pleasure."
--Helen Russell
"Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian."
-- Dennis Wholey
"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore."
-- Andre Gide
January 11, 2023 (Wednesday)
"Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for."
--James Taylor
"When looking for a life partner, my advice to women is date all of them: the bad boys, the cool boys, the commitment-phobic boys, the crazy boys. But do not marry them. The things that make the bad boys sexy do not make them good husbands. When it comes time to settle down, find someone who wants an equal partner. Someone who thinks women should be smart, opinionated, and ambitious. Someone who values fairness and expects or, even better, wants to do his share in the home. These men exist and, trust me, over time, nothing is sexier."
--Sheryl Sandberg
"I think happiness is overrated. Satisfied, at peace-those would be more realistic goals."
-- Brad Pitt
"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."
--Grandma Moses
"Like looking both ways before crossing the street and then getting hit by a submarine."
--Clarke Smith, age 9, describing the first year of the pandemic.
"You don't become what you want, you become what you believe."
-- Oprah Winfrey
"Before you can make a dream come true, you must first have one."
-- Ronald McNair
"My pain may be the reason for somebody's laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody's pain."
-- Charlie Chaplin
"Failure is success if we learn from it."
--Malcolm Forbes
"Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember--the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you."
--Zig Ziglar
"Who sows virtue reaps honor."
--Leonardo da Vinci
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things."
--Ronald Reagan
"If everything was perfect you would never learn and you would never grow."
-- Beyonce
"Innovation is serendipity, so you don't know what people will make."
-- Tim Berners-Lee
"When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"Fear is an insidious and deadly thing. It can warp judgment, freeze reflexes, breed mistakes. Worse, it's contagious."
--James Stewart
"When I'm on that field, I give it everything I have, and when I come off, I'm a mom. As tired and exhausting as it is, it's about coming back, even after double days, and still being able to enjoy the kids."
-- Christie Rampone
"If you want happiness for an hour take a nap. If you want happiness for a day, go fishing. If you want happiness for a year, inherit a fortune. If you want happiness for a lifetime, help someone else."
--Anonymous
"It's a good place when all you have is hope and not expectations."
-- Danny Boyle
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."
--Steve Jobs
"I had only a few lines in each of four episodes. But those tiny residual checks keep trickling in, and over the years, Seinfeld has earned me well over $80,000. Plus, my association with the show, however modest, has opened all kinds of doors for me."
--Annie Korzen, who had a small recurring role on Seinfeld
"The trouble is not in dying for a friend, but in finding a friend worth dying for."
-- Mark Twain
"I always want to say to people who want to be rich and famous: 'Try being rich first.' See if that doesn't cover most of it.-- Bill Murray
"Today I choose life. To feel the freedom that comes from being able to continue to make mistakes and choices--today I choose to feel life, not to deny my humanity but embrace it."
--Kevyn Aucoin
"The worth of a life is not determined by a single failure or a solitary success."
-- Kevin Kline
"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free."
--Major General Gordon Granger, June 19, 1865
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."
-- Frederick Douglass
"If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started."
--Drew Houston
"Use your fear... it can take you to the place where you store your courage."
-- Amelia Earhart
"A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man."
-- Malcolm X
"Out of difficulties grow miracles."
--Jean de la Bruyere
"I feel like if it's not scaring you, you're doing it wrong."
-- Anna Kendrick
"One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution."
--Ginni Rometty, executive chairman of IBM
"If you're ever if you're ever thinking, Oh, but I'm a waste of space and I'm a burden, remember: that also describes the Grand Canyon. Why don't you have friends and family take pictures of you from a safe distance? Revel in your majestic profile?"
-- Maria Bamford
"Right is right, even if no one else does it."
-- Juliette Gordon Low
"[W]ith extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility. And the responsibility for me is to invest in creating new businesses, create jobs, employ people, and to put money aside to tackle issues where we can make a difference."
--Richard Branson
"You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That's how prayer works."
-- Pope Francis
"What good is success if you're not willing to share it?"
-- Karl Malone
"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends."
--J.K. Rowling
"Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself."
-- Coco Chanel
"Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit."
--Bernard Williams
"You're not going to get very far in life on the basis of what you already know. You're going to advance in life by what you're going to learn."
--Charlie Munger
"You are on the eve of a complete victory. You can't go wrong. The world is behind you."
-- Josephine Baker
"I will always wonder. What did my boss have to gain by refusing to believe that sexism exists? ... I never did figure it out. Instead, I quit and started my own business."
--Nicole Hallberg
"A pack of jackasses led by a lion is superior to a pack of lions led by a jackass."
-- George Washington
"Surviving a failure gives you more self-confidence. Failures are great learning tools ... but they must be kept to a minimum."
--Jeffrey Immelt
"Our industry does not respect tradition. It only respects innovation."
--Satya Nadella
"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation ... we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."
--Will Durant (but also Aristotle, sort of)
"No matter how dirty your past is, your future is still spotless."
--Drake
"The first step is clearly defining what it is you're after, because without knowing that, you'll never get it."
-- Halle Berry
"The big 'a-ha' was that you need to make sure your managers are empowered, because if they can't handle 'dress appropriately,' what other judgment decisions are they not making?"
--Mary Barra, GM CEO, on her 2-word dress code ("dress appropriately")
"Most people ask questions because they want to know the answer; lawyers are trained never to ask questions unless they already know the answer."
-- Lani Guinier
"Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy."
--Norman Vincent Peale
"It's irreverence, foolish confidence, and naivety combined with persistence, open mindedness, and a continual ability to learn that created Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, Apple, Juniper, AOL, Sun Microsystems, and others."
--Vinod Khosla
"If you don't take the time to get really clear about exactly what it is you're trying to accomplish, then you're forever doomed to spend your life achieving the goals of those who do."
--Steve Pavlina
"Connect deeply with others. Our humanity is the one thing that we all have in common."
-- Melinda Gates
"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
--Alexander Graham Bell
"Men give me credit for some genius. All the genius I have lies in this; when I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort that I have made is what people are pleased to call the fruit of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."
-- Alexander Hamilton
"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them."
--Marcus Aurelius
"Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."
--St. Augustine
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
-- John Wooden
"I never dreamed of success. I worked for it."
--Estée Lauder
"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?"
-- Satchel Paige (whose birthdate was a source of controversy)
"There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit."
-- Ronald Reagan
March 16, 2023 (Thursday)
"The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
-- Confucius
March 17, 2023 (Friday)
"When 99% of people doubt your idea, you're either gravely wrong or about to make history."
-- Scott Belsky
March 18, 2023 (Saturday)
"Success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you're desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way."
-- Conan O'Brien
March 19, 2023 (Sunday)
"I get tired of myself pretty fast. So I can't imagine other people don't get tired of me."
-- Paul Giamatti
March 20, 2023 (Monday)
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."
--Frederick Douglass
March 21, 2023 (Tuesday)
"I think people waste so much time strategizing about what they should do, rather than just going and doing something, making mistakes, and then pivoting. The goal of a startup should be: Launch as many things as possible, fail as quickly as possible, and then figure out how to move forward from there."
--Jenny Fleiss
"Sometimes you don't realize how special something is until you lose it. Thats how I feel about Ramadan every year."
--Omar Suleiman
"I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody's passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn't mind learning."
--Amy Poehler
"I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass."
--Maya Angelou
"Especially when you're not that talented, you have to be ready. You have to be up for the fight. You have to be like that every day. And if you're not, you lose your livelihood."
--Brian Scalabrine
"The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese"
-- Steven Wright
"I freed a thousand slaves I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."
--Harriet Tubman
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
--Marcel Proust
"A No. 2 pencil and a dream can take you anywhere."
--Joyce Meyer
"To see we must forget the name of the thing we are looking at."
-- Claude Monet
"Best things in life aren't things."
-- Mike Ness
"The fastest way to change yourself is to hang out with people who are already the way you want to be."
-- Reid Hoffman
"The question isn't who's going to let me; it's who's going to stop me."
--Ayn Rand
"Economics is like the Dutch language - I'm told it makes sense, but I have my doubts."
-- John Oliver
"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great."
-- Tom Hanks
"This nostalgia is kind of ironic because a lot of people at the time hated us."
--Ben Unglesbee, writer and former Blockbuster worker
"All good ideas start out as bad ideas, that's why it takes so long."
-- Steven Spielberg
"You can't master your future if you're still a slave to your past."
-- Rihanna
"First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen? Then prepare to accept it. Then proceed to improve on the worst."
--Dale Carnegie
"Anyone can see the adversity in a difficult situation, but it takes a stronger person to see the opportunity."
-- Drew Brees
"It's easier to beg forgiveness than get permission."
--Grace Hopper
"For people who are the best of the best in their field, passion is absolutely the biggest factor. It's the essential key to success."
--Hermundur Sigmundsson
"Understand well as I may, my comprehension can only be an infinitesimal fraction of all I want to understand."
-- Ada Lovelace
"Good is the enemy of great."
--Jim Collins
"If only we could add more coziness to our lives, perhaps we would be as happy as the Danish."
--Brock Bastian
"Happiness is an inside job."
--Anonymous
"Nature gave men two ends... one to sit on and one to think with. Ever since then man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most."
--George R. Kilpatrick
"We had no idea it would go viral. We were surprised that an unadorned set of 127 slides--no music, no animation--would become so influential."
--Patty McCord, former chief talent officer at Netflix, on the company's culture slide deck
"It's not your job to like me, it's mine."
--Byron Katie
"Don't be afraid to give up the good to go for the great."
--John D. Rockefeller
"I'm intimidated by the fear of being average."
--Taylor Swift
"Don't be afraid to do something big."
--Daphne Koller
"If you look around the room, and you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."
-- Lorne Michaels
"An easy way to get people to like you is to make them laugh."
-- Isla Fisher
"I guess the worst day I have had was when I had to stand up in rehab in front of my wife and daughter and say, 'Hi, my name is Sam and I am an addict.'"
--Samuel L. Jackson
"Today, I really have only one word for you. ... And that word is: 'Internet.'"
--Ted Leonsis, during a commencement address in 1999
"Creativity is intelligence having fun."
--Albert Einstein
"There's no job better than another.. Every job is worthwhile"
--Geoffrey Owens, American actor known who went viral after being spotted working at Trader Joe's
"A private who loses a rifle suffers far greater consequences than a general who loses a war."
--Paul Yingling
"Write this down, young man. Life has been extremely, I say extremely, kind."
--Margaret Gorman, the first Miss America
"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary."
--Vidal Sassoon
"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door."
--Milton Berle
"It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Even a dead one can float with it."
--John Crowe
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
--Steve Jobs
"Nothing will work unless you do."
--Maya Angelou
"Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can."
--Arthur Ashe
"Your big opportunity may be right where you are now."
--Napoleon Hill
"If you don't fall how are you going to know what getting up is like."
-- Stephen Curry
"If you feel safe in the area you're working in, you're not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting."
-- David Bowie
"Too low they build, who build beneath the stars."
--Edward Young
"Only eyes washed by tears can see clearly."
-- Louis Mann
"When I'm not making a picture, I spend all my time fixing my car. My wife doesn't have to worry about other women; she knows where to find me."
--Steve McQueen, actor, 1968
"If you focus on results, you'll never change. If you focus on change, you'll get results."
--Jack Dixon
"Probably the best punch of the whole fight was never landed. Muhammad Ali, as I was going down - stumbling and trying to hold myself - he saw me stumbling. Ordinarily, you finish your fighter off. I would have. He got ready to throw the right hand and he didn't do it. That's what made him, in my mind, the greatest fighter I ever fought."
--George Foreman
"Nothing is hopeless that is right."
--Susan B. Anthony
"Victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan."
--John F. Kennedy
"Obstacles can't stop you. Problems can't stop you. Most of all, other people can't stop you. Only you can stop you."
--Jeffrey Gitomer
"An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy."
--Rudyard Kipling
"I've always been about honesty, whether on the radio, whether I did a movie, whether I wrote a book. As long as you're honest, you don't lose your edge."
-- Howard Stern
"Your kids are overwhelmingly fantastic."
--Genevieve Morgan Coursey, Uber driver who wrote an essay about college students as customers
"An intelligent investor gets satisfaction from the thought that his operations are exactly opposite to those of the crowd."
-- Benjamin Graham
"God loves to help him who strives to help himself."
--Aeschylus
"Being polite and grateful will make people more inclined to help you. And if people are willing to help you, you may accidentally get something you want."
-- Jason Sudeikis
"You do this because you like it, you think what you're making is beautiful. And if you think it's beautiful, maybe they think it's beautiful."
-- Lou Reed
"When you value people, you give them freedom."
--Martha McSally
"An innovation will get traction only if it helps people get something that they're already doing in their lives done better."
-- Clayton Christensen
"If you never want to be criticized, for goodness' sake don't do anything new."
--Jeff Bezos
"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people."
--Virgina Wolfe
"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars--I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over."
--Warren Buffett
"The potential market opportunity did not seem large enough for our required model."
--Early potential AirBNB investor who turned down the chance, 2008
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try."
--Alexander the Great
"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them."
--Richard Dreyfus
"Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
--Charles Dickens
"Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud."
--Maya Angelou
"I felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or rat in a trap. I had already determined to sell my life as dearly as possible if attacked. I felt if I could take one lyncher with me, this would even up the score a little bit."
-- Ida B. Wells
"[My biggest influence] was realizing the tradeoff my parents made in immigrating to the United States. While neither of them pursued a career in entrepreneurship per se, the risk/reward profile they took was seared in my brain."
--Sam Yagan
"Even when I was close to defeat I rose to my feet"
-- Dr. Dre
"What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do."
-- Tim Ferriss
"I was an Army brat. My best friend and I imported candy from the U.S., ate as much as we wanted, and sold the rest . We were turning $50 a day during lunch breaks. Unfortunately, [we] ran into regulatory trouble with the assistant principal."
--Trey Gordner
"Someday is not a day of the week."
--Janet Dailey
"There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
-- Robert Kennedy
"Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options."
--Chris Rock
"I'm a big believer in the power of inexperience. It was the greatest asset I had when I started TFA. If I had known at the outset how hard it was going to be, I might never have started."
--Wendy Kopp
"The key of interviewing is listening. If you don't listen, you're not a good interviewer. ... I concentrate solely on the answer, and I trust my instincts to come up with [more] questions."
--Larry King
"Never let anyone define you. You are the only person who defines you. No one can speak for you. Only you speak for you. You are your only voice."
-- Terry Crews
"The evidence overwhelmingly points to the physical body not being all that we are. There seems to be something that is able to continue after the body dies. I don't know what to make of it."
--Dr. Bruce Greyson
"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
--Viktor E. Frankl
"Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it."
--Andy Rooney
"It isn't hard to be good from time to time. What is tough is being good every day."
--Willie Mays
"Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now, the new is you. But, someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
--Steve Jobs
"The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier. Period."
--Robert J. Waldinger, of the Harvard Grant Study
"We were surprised and very happy. We don't know for who, but we are happy for somebody."
--Richard Ravenscroft, owner a convenience store somebody bought a winning $731 million Powerball ticket.
"Maybe you're not perfect, but you're willing to actually look at yourself and take some kind of accountability. That's a change. It might not mean that you can turn everything around, but I think there's something incredibly hopeful about that."
--Brie Larson
"If the thing that I wanted most had happened ... I wouldn't be where I am."
--Conan O'Brien
"When sitting in meditation, say, That's not my business! with every thought that comes by."
-- Ajahn Chah
"I had COVID. It legit took me out for three weeks. I thought I was going to die. But in some ways it gave me a new lease on life, and this idea of, 'I don't always know if I have tomorrow.' So therefore, I'm very cognizant of what I'm doing today, and the legacy I'm leaving behind, and trying to leave people better than I found them, and leave glitter in my wake."
--Christy Cole
"When you think about the things that you will regret when you're 80, they're almost always the things that you did not do. They're acts of omission. Very rarely are you going to regret something that you did that failed ... I'm not just talking about business things. It's like, 'I love that person and I never told them,' and you know, 50 years later you're like, 'Why didn't I tell her? Why didn't I go after it?'"
--Jeff Bezos
"I got to a point where I said to myself, 'Let it be in the past, just for your own mental health.'"
--Stefan Thomas, who reportedly has a digital wallet containing Bitcoin worth $220 million, if only he could remember the password.
"Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other."
--Brian Tracy
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
--Aristotle
"Jazz is smooth and cool. Jazz is rage. Jazz flows like water. Jazz never seems to begin or end. Jazz isn't methodical, but jazz isn't messy either. Jazz is a conversation, a give and take. Jazz is the connection and communication between musicians. Jazz is abandon."
--Nat Wolff
"To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless."
-- Gilbert K. Chesterton
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
--Maya Angelou
"I'll tell you what bravery really is. Bravery is just determination to do a job that you know has to be done."
--Audie Murphy
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
--Napoleon Bonaparte
"I remember every detail. But I don't suffer from it. ... It helped me in life. And tragic as it was, it was a positive experience. I would never have been the way I am."
--Samuel Pisar, Holocaust survivor who later became the stepfather of future U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken
"The day I stop giving is the day I stop receiving. The day I stop learning is the day I stop growing. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
-- Wayne Gretzky
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
"Your fear of looking stupid is making you look stupid."
--RuPaul
"What is not started will never get finished."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Hope will never be silent."
--Harvey Milk
"It's not always enough to be brave, I realized years later. You have to be brave and contribute something positive, too. Brave on its own is just a party trick."
-- B. J. Novak
"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
-- Bruce Lee
"Life's too mysterious; don't take it serious."
--George Gershwin
"If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?"
--Joe Namath
"The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow.-- H.G. Wells
"Entrepreneur is not a job title. It is a state of mind of people who want to alter the future."
-- Guy Kawasaki
"Sometimes your mistakes are you biggest virtues. You learn so much from the mistake. Those things that you think are the worst thing that's happening to you can somehow turn around and be the greatest opportunity."
-- Nicole Kidman
"The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing."
--Walt Disney
"If you're too rigid in your thinking you may miss some wonderful opportunities for storytelling."
-- Vince Gilligan
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
-- Marie Curie
"I'm no good at anything but comedy, which I think I'm good at. I'm absolutely no good at networking; I'm terrible at acting; I'm terrible at dealing with executives; I'm terrible at collaborating. And I say whatever I want to say. But I think I'm good enough at comedy that I can survive. And I don't really have an ambition for money."
--Norm MacDonald
"It is never too late, no matter how old you get because anytime or any point in your life you can always have a chance to make a difference. You can always make a change for the better no matter what background you derived from. You can always do your best and be all that you can be because you will always be uniquely you. It is why it is always wise to listen to your eternal heart, your eternal instincts, and what it had always strove for and/or to do because really anybody can make a difference not only in their own lives but in the lives of others. It is never too late to shine; never."
-- George Eliot
"People think I'm an overnight success. No. It's just that you all found me overnight."
-- Leslie Jones
"Giving up doesn't always mean you're weak. Sometimes you're just strong enough to let go."
--Taylor Swift
"When you meet somebody for the first time, you're not meeting them. You're meeting their representative."
-- Chris Rock
"It is not very often that an opportunity comes knocking. But when it does, you'd better be bathed and dressed and ready to answer its call."
--Jyoti Arora
"It's always better to shock people and change people's expectations than to give them exactly what they think you can do."
-- Jonah Hill
"Yes, I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can find his way by moonlight, and see the dawn before the rest of the world."
--Oscar Wilde
"The best investment you can make, is an investment in yourself... The more you learn, the more you'll earn."
-- Warren Buffett
"If you see a bandwagon, it's too late."
--James Goldsmith
"To bring about change, you must not be afraid to take the first step. We will fail when we fail to try."
-- Rosa Parks
"The only person you should try to be better than is the person you were yesterday."
--Anonymous
"I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end."
-- Gilda Radner
"Either you run the day or the day runs you."
--Jim Rohn
"Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder."
-- Emma Thompson
"Every noble work is at first impossible."
--Thomas Carlyle
"If you feel rooted in your home and family, if you're active in your community, there's nothing more empowering. The best way to make a difference in the world is to start by making a difference in your own life."
-- Julia Louis-Dreyfus
"Criticism is something we can avoid easily by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing."
-- Aristotle
"The people you work with are people you were just thrown together with. I mean, you don't know them. It wasn't your choice. And yet you spend more time with them than you do your friends or your family..."
--Martin Freeman (on the British version of The Office)
"One today is worth two tomorrows."
--Benjamin Franklin
"You can always tell someone to go to hell tomorrow. ... You haven't missed the opportunity. Just forget about it for a day. If you feel the same way tomorrow, tell them. But, don't spout off in a moment of anger."
--Warren Buffett
"You know what lasts longer than beauty? Being smart."
--Gabrielle Union
"True luck consists not in holding the best of the cards at the table; luckiest is he who knows just when to rise and go home."
--John Hay
"Gifts are easy--they're given, after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices."
--Jeff Bezos
"Good things come to obsessive compulsives who fixate."
-- Kieran Culkin
"I would rather die of passion than of boredom."
--Vincent Van Gogh
"When you are not willing to fully receive, you are training the universe not to give to you! It's simple: if you aren't willing to receive your share, it will go to someone else who is."
-- T. Harv Eker
"There's a plaque on our wall that says we've sold over 65 million albums, and I don't feel I've accomplished anything. I feel like I'm just getting started."
--Eddie Van Halen
"People should be paid the amount necessary to elicit their work. I, however, am paid to do what I would do without pay."
--George Will
"There is no such thing as luck. There is only adequate or inadequate preparation to cope with a statistical universe."
--Robert A. Heinlein
"The pursuit of happiness can ironically undermine well-being."
--Aekyoung Kim
"The best way out is always through."
--Robert Frost
"Anything in life worth having is worth working for."
--Andrew Carnegie
"Normal is not something to aspire to, it's something to get away from."
-- Jodie Foster
"Yesterday's home runs don't win today's games."
--Babe Ruth
"It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."
--Howard Ruff
"An important attribute of success is to be yourself. Never hide what makes you, you."
-- Indra Nooyi
"I want to thank Ken Behrens for doing the right thing."
--Australian television (an official actually said "Canberrans, meaning people from Canberra, but a closed caption transcriber misheard)
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
--Oscar Wilde
"Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship."
-- Gautama Buddha
"People invest a lot in finding someone who's compatible, but our research says that may not be the 'end-all, be-all,' Chopik explained. Instead, people may want to ask, 'Are they a nice person?' 'Do they have a lot of anxiety?' Those things matter way more."
--Dr. Bill Chopik
"I branded myself. I created a thing called the Salinger Group. I started saying 'we' instead of 'I.' My now-wife who was then my best friend designed a business card for me that was gorgeous. I had a website that said tons and tons of nothing and no physical address and no contact information other than an email address. And the funniest thing would happen. I'd come to things like this. I'd be talking to somebody and hand them my card and they'd say, the Salinger Group, huh? I know you guys. You do good work."
--Chris Sacca
"To those wondering about giving while living: Try it. You'll like it."
--Charles Feeney, former billionaire, who gave away virtually his entire net worth.
"To scale, do things that do not scale"
--Reid Hoffman
"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
--Albert Einstein
"Happiness is not a goal. It's a by-product of a life well-lived."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
"If you constantly think of illness, you eventually become ill; if you believe yourself to be beautiful, you become so."
-- Shakti Gawain
"We will be soldiers, so our sons may be farmers, so their sons may be artists."
--Thomas Jefferson
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."
--Margaret Fuller
"There's nothing you can do that's more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way, you will find, live, and become a realization of your own personal myth."
-- Joseph Campbell
"If a guy doesn't like a funny girl, something is wrong with him."
--Bill Hader
"More men have become great through practice than by nature."
--Democritus
"In the startup world, you're either a genius or an idiot. You're never just an ordinary guy trying to get through the day."
-- Marc Andreessen
"Everyone you meet in life is fighting a battle you know nothing about."
--Tim Ferris
"A man who loves you the most is the man who tells you the most truth about yourself."
--Robert Murray M'Cheyne
"You were born with everything you need to answer the call of your soul."
-- Marie Forleo
"You can't achieve anything in life without a small amount of sacrifice."
--Shakira
"Our heart knows what our mind has forgotten - it knows the sacred that is within all that exists, and through a depth of feeling we can once again experience this connection, this belonging."
-- Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
"A roll-up-your-sleeves- and-pitch-in mindset, a mindset that says, there's some unpleasant work, someone's got to do it, it might as well be me ... that's what gets you ahead in the workplace."
--Julie Lythcott Holmes
"What we hope to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence."
--Samuel Johnson
"Hire character. Train skill."
--Peter Schutz
"There's a bizarre lunatic fringe who feel I owe them a living," Mr. Dahl told The Associated Press in 1988. "Sometimes I look back and wonder if my life wouldn't have been simpler if I hadn't done it."
--Gary Dahl
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
--George Bernard Shaw
"We'd write these serious songs and sell nothing. And then, whoa, 'I Love Hugh Grant' made like 74 cents last month! Farley told me in a phone interview. Most people would quit, but I was like, if I can make 20,000 songs that are as successful as 'I Love Hugh Grant,' I'll be doing pretty well!"
--Matt Farley, Amazon musician
"If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously."
-- Cate Blanchett
"You can change. And you can be an agent of change."
-- Laura Dern
"I don't look to jump over 7-foot bars-I look for 1-foot bars that I can step over."
--Warren Buffett
"Man is free at the instant he wants to be."
--Voltaire
"I would rather five people knew my work and thought it was good work than five million knew me and were indifferent."
-- Colin Firth
"The longer you're in the game, the hotter you are."
--Bonnie Guterl
"It was a great opportunity to connect with some fantastic people. Looking forward to life's next adventure. "
--Brian Acton, WhatsApp co-founder, earlier, after being turned down for a job at Facebook
"If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever."
--Thomas Aquinas
"Time is life itself, and life resides in the human heart."
--Michael Ende
"Average talent, plus hard work and dedication, will always beat talent by itself."
-- Clinton Anderson
"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom."
--Bertrand Russell
"What we think, we become."
--Buddha
"The mark of greatness is when everything before you is obsolete, and everything after you bears your mark."
-- Dave Chappelle
"What a memory! Also no Amazon if it weren't for this, since he decided not to pursue physics!"
--Yasantha Rajakarunanayake, after Jeff Bezos reminisced about the smartest person he knew at Princeton
"There is no substitute for hard work, 23 or 24 hours a day. And there is no substitute for patience and acceptance."
--Cesar Chavez
"Ultimately, you just have one life. You never know unless you try. And you never get anywhere unless you ask."
-- Kate Winslet
"We should always have three friends in our lives: one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we've cleared the way."
-- Michelle Obama
"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are"
-- Kurt Cobain
"Champions keep playing until they get it right."
--Billie Jean King
"There's a reason we cherish our national treasures in human form: It's because, while their artistry, their talent, their awesome presence, is truly a gift they're not required to share, they reward us by opening themselves up and letting us in."
--Ramona Grigg
"Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong."
-- Leo Buscaglia
"Death is something inevitable. When a man has done what he considers to be his duty to his people and his country, he can rest in peace. I believe I have made that effort and that is, therefore, why I will sleep for the eternity."
--Nelson Mandella
"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
-- Kurt Vonnegut
"We are obsessed with the idea that some people are more creative than others, Fletcher said. But the reality is that we're just not training creativity in the right way."
--Angus Fletcher
"The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences, and Teflon for positive ones."
--Rick Hanson
"I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."
-- John D. Rockefeller
"It's tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 a.m. when you've been sleeping in silk pajamas."
--Marvin Hagler
"If someone ever says you're weird, say thank you."
-- Ellen DeGeneres
"I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me."
--Eddie Vedder
"God loves us beyond comprehension, and we cannot diminish God's love for us."
-- Saint Peter
"If life seems jolly rotten, there's something you've forgotten! And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing."
--Monty Python
"I am not in competition with anyone but myself. My goal is to improve myself continuously."
-- Bill Gates
"We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do."
--Marianne Williamson
"It's your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don't take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver."
-- Betty White
"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not making decisions."
--Catherine Cook
"Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive, because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive, because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny."
--Mahatma Gandhi
"To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."
-- C. S. Lewis
"Never burn bridges. Today's junior jerk, tomorrow's senior partner."
-- Sigourney Weaver
"Whatever you do, do it completely. Don't do it half-arsed. Do it more than anybody else would."
-- Christian Bale
"The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives."
--Armistead Maupin
"I think one day you'll find that you're the hero you've been looking for."
--Jimmy Stewart
"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures."
-- Laozi
"I am thankful for all of those who said no to me. It's because of them I'm doing it myself."
--Albert Einstein
"I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was."
--Muhammad Ali
"We'll start the war from right here!"
--Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
"Life has a much bigger plan for you. Happiness is part of that plan. Health is part of that plan. Stability is part of that plan. Constant struggle is not."
-- Kris Carr
"I don't know what the future may hold, but I know who holds the future."
-- Ralph Abernathy
"I stay fat because it just wouldn't be fair to all the thin people if I were this good-looking, intelligent, funny, and thin. It's a public service really."
-- Rebel Wilson
"Here's a true story, man. I learned English because of you. My grandfather who raised me...I used to sit on his lap and listen to you every day. So, it's a pretty special moment for me, man. Thank you very much."
--Burt Thackur, Jeopardy! contestant, to Alex Trebek on one of Trebek's last shows
"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."
--Sun Tzu
"I know for sure that what we dwell on is what we become."
--Oprah Winfrey
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are for."
--John A. Shedd
"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic."
-- Peter Drucker
"If you want to change who you are, you have to change what you do."
--Jim Rohn
"I have no explanation for it, but I do firmly believe that modest drinking improves longevity."
--Claudia Kawas, scientist whose work shows people in cultures where drinking wine is common live longer
"I don't want it to have happened. I want it to not have happened, but if you are grateful for your life ... then you have to be grateful for all of it. You can't pick and choose what you're grateful for. So, what do you get from loss? You get awareness of other people's loss, which allows you to connect with that other person, which allows you to love more deeply and to understand what it's like to be a human being, if it's true that all humans suffer."
--Stephen Colbert, on the death of his father and two brothers in a plane crash when he was a child
"Plant your garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers."
--Jose Luis Borges
"Anti-social behavior is a trait of intelligence in a world full of conformists."
-- Nikola Tesla
"You don't overcome challenges by making them smaller but by making yourself bigger."
-- John C. Maxwell
"When I work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, I get lucky."
--Dr. Armand Hammer
"There are no working hours for leaders."
--James Cardinal Gibbons
"We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone."
--Ronald Reagan
"Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human."
-- Tony Robbins
"Don't aspire to make a living, aspire to make a difference."
-- Denzel Washington
"Failure: Is it a limitation? Bad timing? It's a lot of things. It's something you can't be afraid of, because you'll stop growing. The next step beyond failure could be your biggest success in life."
-- Debbie Allen
"Never let anyone try and make you into something that you're not. Remember what it is that you want, and always stay strong in that."
-- Abigail Breslin
"I didn't know how to do fancy."
--Craig Newmark, explaining why the design for Craigslist was so simple
"Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears."
-- Les Brown
"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult."
--Seneca
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
--Alan Kay
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
--Reinhold Niebuhr
"You must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind."
--Emmet Fox
"If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going."
-- Harriet Tubman
"Sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage"
-- Matt Damon
"I'm so secretive that when someone asks me, Hey, can you keep a secret? I say, 'That's none of your business.'"
-- Demetri Martin
"Normality is a paved road: It's comfortable to walk,? but no flowers grow on it."
-- Vincent Van Gogh
"Every man should lose a battle in his youth, so he does not lose a war when he is old."
--George R.R. Martin
"Either America will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States."
-- W. E. B. Du Bois
"Success, they taught me, is built on the foundation of courage, hard-work and individual responsibility. Despite what some would have us believe, success is not built on resentment and fears."
-- Susana Martinez
"God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try."
-- Mother Teresa
"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
--Anonymous
"Gifts are easy. They're given, after all. Choices can be hard. You can seduce yourself with your gifts if you're not careful, and if you do, it'll probably be to the detriment of your choices."
--Jeff Bezos
"When you're an outsider or a misfit, if you play it smart, your motto should be, 'I'll show 'em. I will show you.'"
-- Wendy Williams
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
--Martin Luther King
"If everybody loves you, something is wrong. Find at least one enemy to keep you alert."
--Paulo Coelho
"Grant me courage to serve others; For in service there is true life."
-- Cesar Chavez
"People have confused playing devil's advocate with being intelligent."
-- Cecily Strong
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."
--Carl Bard
"The best protection any woman can have... is courage."
--Elizabeth Cady Stanton
"Pressure is a privilege - it only comes to those who earn it."
-- Billie Jean King
"In terms of my own life goals, it became, how do you restore the situation? How can you transform your life? What are the enabling conditions that allow people to go from being victims to being victors?"
--Walter Mischel
"Be so good they can't ignore you."
-- Steve Martin
"I didn't like the idea of being foolish, but I learned pretty soon that it was essential to fail and be foolish."
-- Daniel Day-Lewis
"The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for."
--Bob Marley
"You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you might find, you get what you need."
-- Mick Jagger
"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth."
-- Mike Tyson
"The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."
--Bertrand Russell
"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit."
--Harry S. Truman
"The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."
--Michael Altshuler