"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain

"Today is God's gift to us. What we do with it is our gift to God." - Unknown

"Be good and you will be lonely." - Mark Twain

"We hire attitude, we teach functionality." - Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines co-founder

"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful." - Warren Buffett

 "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw, playwright (1856-1950)

"So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." - Matthew 6:34 (New Living Translation)

"All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve are the direct result of his own thoughts. A man's weakness and strength, purity and impurity, are his own, and not another man's; they are brought about by himself, and not by another; and they can only be altered by himself, never by another. ... His suffering and his happiness are evolved from within. As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains." - From "As a Man Thinketh," by James Allen (1864-1912) 

"Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others." - Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

"God never threatens; the devil never warns." - Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)

"Wise are those who look at others with the same generosity they offer themselves, and at themselves with the same critical eye they have for others." - Unknown

"I do not boast that God is on my side. I humbly pray that I am on God's side." - Abraham Lincoln 

"You can't make a good deal with a bad person." - Warren Buffett

"The most important tactic in an argument, next to being right, is to leave an escape hatch for your opponent, so that he can gracefully swing over to your side without an embarrassing loss of face." - Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)

"Wisdom does not always come with age. Sometimes age arrives alone." - John C. Maxwell

"Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they think laughable." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

"Growth is the only evidence of life." - John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run." - Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986)

"One of the paradoxes of life is that the things that initially make you successful are rarely the things that keep you successful." - John C. Maxwell

"Remember, the greatest enemy of learning is knowing, and the goal of all learning is action, not knowledge." - John C. Maxwell, "Talent Is Never Enough"

"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage." - Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

"The lessons we learn from our failures
  Are lessons that help us succeed,
  And if we are wise and we heed them,
  Then failure is just what we need."

- Dennis De Haan 

"There is no right way to do the wrong thing." - Harry H. Harrison, Jr., author, "1001 Things Your Kids Should See and Do (or Else They'll Never Leave Home)"

"Each person is responsible for his or her own reaction to us. Yet the way we behave makes a difference in others' lives." - Anne Cetas 

"Don't let yesterday take up too much of today." - Will Rogers

"Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline."  - Jim Collins, "Good to Great"

"Good is the enemy of great." - Jim Collins, "Good to Great "

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out." - Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)

"If you put yourself out in the marketplace as a person of value, others will want to connect with you. Not all of them will be good. Not all of them will be valuable. Most of them will not lead you to the Promised Land. But some will." - Jeffrey Gitomer, "The Little Black Book of Connections"

"I believe that it is no harder to build something great than to build something good. ... [I]t involves less suffering, and perhaps even less work. ... There is great solace in the simple fact of clarity - about what is vital, and what is not." - Jim Collins, "Good to Great "

 "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value." - Albert Einstein

"You've removed most of the roadblocks to success when you know the difference between motion and direction." - Bill Copeland, author and private investigator

"Would you tell me please, which way ought I to go from here?" she asks.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get," the cat replied with a grin.
"I don't care much where," she answers.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," the cat responds.
          - From "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll

"I think what separates a superstar from the average ballplayer is that he concentrates just a little bit longer." - Hank Aaron

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." - Abraham Lincoln

"You reveal who you are by what you do with what you have" - Unknown

"I believe you don't motivate people. What you do is hire motivated people, then make sure you don't demotivate them." – Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex, Inc.

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the hanging on of an uncompleted task." – William James (1842-1910)

"Nothing is more common than for men to think that, because they are familiar with words, they understand the ideas they stand for." – John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

"You cannot kindle a fire in any other heart until it is burning within your own." – Eleanor Doan

"When you discover you've been leading only half a life, the other half is going to haunt you until you develop it." – Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), composer of "O Little Town of Bethlehem"

"Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to a new power as a benefactor." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." – Douglas Adams (1952-2001), author, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

"Thanksgiving is nothing if not a glad and reverent lifting of the heart to God in honor and praise for His goodness." – Robert Casper Lintner

"There are very few men who have the shrewdness to think and feel beyond the commotion of the present moment. Try." – Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), Prussian military theorist and historian

"A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault." – John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

"The most important question to ask is not, 'What am I getting?' The most important question to ask is, 'What am I becoming?'" – Jim Rohn

"Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing." – Thomas Edison

"Just remember that the things you put into your head are there forever ... You might want to think about that." –  Cormac McCarthy, author, The Road

"I was bound by the iron chain of my own will. I was rather an unwilling sufferer than a willing actor. And yet it was through me that habit had become an armed enemy against me, because I had willingly come to be what I unwillingly found myself to be." – Augustine (354-430)

"Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They do not mean to do harm. They are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves." – T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

"If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable ... we must be content to creep along the ground, and never soar." – John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

"Do not wait; the time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." – Napoleon Hill (1883-1970), author

"The harder I work, the luckier I get." – Samuel Goldwyn (1882-1974), film maker

"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret." – Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

"All man's miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone." – Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." – Dale Carnegie

"Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs." – Maxwell Maltz, author, Psycho-Cybernetics

"I believe we have two lives: the life we learn with, and the life we live with after that." – Iris, in The Natural

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A person who seems to have all the answers usually isn't listening.” – Jeffrey Gitomer

"Men do not differ much about what things they will call evil; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable." – G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), author

"There is no better test of a man's integrity than his behavior when he is wrong." – Unknown

"Controlling our speech isn't easy, because the real problem is not our words, but our hearts. Behind the insults, we are likely to find in ourselves an insecurity, fear or guilt that tempts us to protect ourselves at the expense of another." – Mart De Haan

"Perceptions are formed by an ounce of information, and changed by a ton." – Unknown

"Sour moods create untold misery. Discontent, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, defensiveness, touchiness, and ingratitude are the dispositions that ruin our marriages, wither our children, alienate our friends, and embitter every life — including our own. It’s easy to defend our bad moods and to slide into deception and hypocrisy. But we must guard our hearts against such destructive attitudes. When they arise, we need to confess them, let them go, and experience God’s forgiveness. Don’t let your bad attitude cause you to lose out while others enter into joy." – David H. Roper

"Courage is fear that has said its prayers." – Norman Vincent Peale, author

"No man has a prosperity so high or firm, but that two or three words can dishearten it; and there is no calamity which right words will not begin to redress." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer." – Henry David Thoreau

"Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery." – Warren Bennis, author and professor of business administration, University of Southern California

"To set and work toward any goal is an act of courage. When we exercise the courage to set and act on goals that are connected to principles and conscience ... we create an upward spiral of confidence and courage. Our commitment becomes stronger than our moods." – Stephen R. Covey, author, First Things First

"If you don't like the weeds growing up around you, you might want to take a look at what you're planting." – Variously attributed

"People won't go along with you unless they can get along with you." – John C. Maxwell, author and speaker

"Say what you mean. Mean what you say." – Anonymous

"Tempest-tossed souls, wherever ye may be, under whatsoever conditions ye may live, know this: In the ocean of life the isles of Blessedness are smiling, and the sunny shore of your ideal awaits your coming. Keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the commanding Master. He does but sleep; wake Him. Self-control is strength, right thought is mastery, calmness is power. Say unto your heart, "Peace, be still." – "Serenity" from As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen (1864-1912)

"Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay? There's six months in a season, that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week – just one ... you get a groundball with eyes, you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week – and you're in Yankee Stadium." – Crash Davis (Bull Durham)

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant." – Max De Pree, former chairman of Herman Miller, Inc.

"If you know what to do to reach your goal, it's not a big enough goal." – Bob Proctor, speaker and author

"I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened." – Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can do only a little. Do what you can." – Sydney Smith (1771-1845), English writer and clergyman

"In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. But the most important is integrity because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you." – Warren Buffett, from The Tao of Warren Buffet

"We talk about the quality of product and service. What about the quality of our relationships and the quality of our communications and the quality of our promises to each other?" – Max de Pree, author and former chairman of Herman Miller, Inc.

"What we do in life echoes in eternity." – from the movie Gladiator

"Never wrestle with a pig. You'll both get muddy, and the pig likes it." – Anonymous

"The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom." – James Allen (1864-1912), author, As a Man Thinketh

"There is nothing noble in being superior to some other person. True nobility comes from being superior to your previous self." – Hindu proverb

"Great minds have great purposes, others have wishes. Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them." – Washington Irving, author (1783-1859)

"How can you know what is in your heart? Look at your behavior." – LeRoy Eims, author

"Every time I've done something that doesn't feel right, it's ended up not being right." – Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York

"Let no thought linger in your mind that you would be ashamed to let out of your mouth." – Anne Cetas

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." – Melody Beatty, author

"When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package." – John Ruskin, author (1819-1900)

“Revenge never evens the score, for alienated people never keep score of wrongs by the same mathematics. Forgiveness is the only way to stop the cycle of unfair pain turning in your memory. Forgiveness creates a new possibility of fairness by releasing us from the unfair past. To forgive is to dance to the beat of God’s forgiving heart. It is to ride the crest of love’s strongest wave. To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” – Dr. Lewis Smedes, from "Forgive and Forget"

"In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened." – Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

"People of character do the right thing – not because they think it will change the world, but because they refuse to be changed by the world." – Michael Josephson

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think." – Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister

"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself." – Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

"Give me a stock clerk with a goal and I'll give you a man who will make history. Give me a man with no goals and I'll give you a stock clerk." – J.C. Penney (1875-1971)

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

"One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again." – Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

"A mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement." – Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"No man, for any considerable period of time, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the truth." – Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), author

"Our anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but only empties today of its strength." – Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)

"Whenever you make a mistake or get knocked down by life, don't look back at it too long. Mistakes are life's way of teaching you. Your capacity for occasional blunders is inseparable from your capacity to reach your goals. No one wins them all, and your failures, when they happen, are just part of your growth. Shake off your blunders. How will you know your limits without an occasional failure? Never quit. Your turn will come."  – Og Mandino (1923-1996), from "A Better Way to Live"

"Those at the top of the mountain didn't fall there." – Marcus Washling

What we hope to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence." – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." – Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"My mother taught me very early to believe I could achieve any accomplishment I wanted to. The first was to walk without braces." – Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994), Olympic gold medalist

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find that he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do." – Henry Ford

"I am your constant companion. I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. I am completely at your command. Half of the tasks you do you might as well turn over to me, and I will do them quickly and correctly. I am easily managed – you must merely be firm with me. Show me exactly how you want something done and after a few lessons I will do it automatically. I am the servant of all great people and, alas, of all failures as well. Those who are great, I have made great. Those who are failures, I have made failures. I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine plus the intelligence of a man. You may run me for profit, or you may run me for ruin – it makes no difference to me. Take me, train me, be firm with me, and I will place the world at your feet. Be easy with me and I will destroy you. Who am I? I am habit." – Source unknown

"There is no growth without change; there is no change without fear or loss; and there is no loss without pain. Every change involves a loss of some kind: You must let go of old ways in order to experience the new. We fear these losses, even if our old ways were self-defeating, because, like a worn-out pair of shoes, they were at least comfortable and familiar." – Rick Warren, The Purpose-Driven Life

"Character building is a slow process. Whenever we try to avoid or escape the difficulties in life, we short-circuit the process, delay our growth, and actually end up with a worse kind of pain – the worthless type that accompanies denial and avoidance." – Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

"The problems we face today cannot be solved on the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." – Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"This is the true joy of life: the being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clot of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy." – George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

"Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience." – Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973), World War I aviator, race car driver and businessman

"If you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now quiet, they're about to announce the lottery numbers!" – Homer Simpson

"Every decision you make – every decision – is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about who you are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do." – Neale Donald Walsch, author

"There's no scarcity of opportunity to make a great living at what you love. There is only a scarcity of resolve to make it happen." – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, author (who also wrote, "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change")

"Do you remember the things you were worrying about a year ago? How did they work out? Didn't you waste a lot of fruitless energy on account of most of them? Didn't most of them turn out all right after all?" – Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

"Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." – T.S. Eliot, poet (1888-1965)

"The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas." – Linus Pauling, scientist and humanitarian (1901-1994)

"We first make our habits, then our habits make us." – John Dryden (1631-1700)

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant." – Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1895

"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot ... and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's precisely why I succeed." – Michael Jordan

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore." – Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

"[H]e who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove." – Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

"Well, I know it wasn't you who held me down; Heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free. So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains, and we never even know we have the key." – From "Already Gone," by Jack Tempchin

"They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pityings, all of which are indications of weakness, which lead, just as surely as deliberately planned sins (though by a different route), to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in a power-evolving universe." – James Allen (1864-1902), author, As a Man Thinketh

"There is an inherent law of mind that we increase whatever we praise. The whole of creation responds to praise and is glad. Words of praise, gratitude, or thanksgiving expand, set free, and in every way radiate energy. You can praise a weak body into strength; a fearful heart into peace and trust; shattered nerves into poise and power; a failing business into prosperity and success; want and insufficiency into supply and support." – Charles Fillmore (1854-1948)

"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement." – Henry Ford (1863-1947)

"In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his trade, and he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down and cut him ‘til he cried out, in his anger and his shame, 'I am leaving, I am leaving.' But the fighter still remains." – From "The Boxer," ©Paul Simon, 1968

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." – Helen Keller (1880-1968)

"It's tough to get ahead when you waste your time getting even." – Lou Holtz, football coach

“You can live on bland food so as to avoid an ulcer; drink no tea, coffee, or other stimulants in the name of health; go to bed early; stay away from night life; avoid all controversial subjects so as to never give offense; mind your own business; avoid involvement in other people’s problems; spend money only on necessities and save all you can. You will still break your neck in the bathtub and it will serve you right.” – Eileen Guder, author, “Discovering Your Destiny”

“Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.” – Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), psychologist

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. 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. Your 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. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." – Marianne Williamson, author

“Human relations is the science of dealing with people in such a way that our egos and their egos remain intact.” – Les Giblin, How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing With People (1956)

“Praise is like sunlight to the warm human spirit; we cannot flower and grow without it. And yet, while most of us are only too ready to apply to others the cold wind of criticism, we are somehow reluctant to give our fellow the warm sunshine of praise.” – Jess Lair, psychologist and author (I Ain't Much, Baby — But I'm All I Got)

"Stop a minute. Stop a minute to contrast your keen interest in your own affairs with your mild concern about anything else. Realize then, that everybody else in the world feels exactly the same way! Then [...] you will have grasped the only solid foundation for interpersonal relationships; namely, that success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person's viewpoint." – Kenneth M. Goode, author of How to Turn People into Gold

“It's not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win, that makes the difference.” – Paul "Bear" Bryant (1913-1983)

"People with humility don't think less of themselves; they just think of themselves less." – Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale in The Power of Ethical Management

"Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course." – "The Law of Navigation," from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, by John C. Maxwell

"He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much; who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men, and the love of little children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who has left the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who has never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had; whose life was an inspiration; whose memory a benediction." – Bessie Anderson Stanley (1904)

"We judge others by their behavior. We judge ourselves by our intentions." – Ian Percy

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor souls who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." – Theodore Roosevelt

"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved." – Helen Keller (1880-1968)

"Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity, but with it you can accomplish miracles." – Og Mandino (1923-1996), author and speaker

"Do not wait; the time will never be 'just right.' Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along." – Napoleon Hill, 1883-1970

"We lift ourselves by our thought. If you want to enlarge your life, you must first enlarge your thought of it and of yourself. Hold the ideal of yourself as you long to be, always, everywhere." – Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924), founder of Success magazine

"You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration." – James Allen (1864-1912), As a Man Thinketh

"Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them; they achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally, and they don't stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose." – John William Gardner (1912-2002)