Life's about friendships, the way you love your partner, the way you care for your children. That is what life is about. Not anything about earning a hundred zillion dollars because you toured America more than anyone else. I want life to be about creativity.
- -- Joe Strummer, former lead singer for the Clash rock band.

None will improve your lot If you yourself do not.
- -- Bertolt Brecht, 1933

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.
- -- Robert Louis Stevenson, 1881

Human nature is not a machine to be built after a model, and set to do exactly the work prescribed for it, but a tree, which requires to grow and develop itself on all sides, according to the tendency of the inward forces which make it a living thing.
- -- John Stuart Mill

The virtues which keep this world sweet and the faithfulness which keeps it steadfast are chiefly those of the average man.
- -- W. Russell Bowie

Adversity is the trial of principle. Without it, a man hardly knows whether he is honest or not.
- -- Henry Fielding

The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. The essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.
- -- Baron de Coubertin, The Olympic Creed

The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it.
- -- Vince Lombardi

The United States is like a gigantic boiler. Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate.
- -- Edward Grey (1862-1933), British statesman

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
- American poet Robert Frost (1875-1963)

The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
- -- Jack London

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
- -- Chinese proverb

Principle -- particularly moral principle -- can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of expediency. Moral principle is a compass forever fixed and forever true.
- -- Edward R. Lyman

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you 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 the end, requires some of the same courage which a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men to win them.
- -- Emerson

A professional is someone who can do his best work when he doesn't feel like it.
- -- Alistair Cooke

In every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; try to imitate it, and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.
- -- John Ruskin

The direst foe of courage is the fear itself, not the object of it, and the man who can overcome his own terror is a hero and more.
- -- George MacDonald

The one resolution, which was in my mind long before it took the form of a resolution, is the key-note of my life. It is this, always to regard as mere impertinences of fate the handicaps which were placed upon my life almost at the beginning. I resolved that they should not crush or dwarf my soul, but rather be made to blossom, like Aaron's rod, with flowers.
- Helen Keller

Ask not for victory, ask for courage. For if you can endure you bring honor to us all, even more you bring honor to yourself.
- -- From the Decathlete

It is only as a man puts off from himself all external support, and stands alone, that I see him to be strong and to prevail.
- -- Emerson

If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man, -- it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.
- -- James A. Garfield

A life without purpose is a languid, drifting thing; Every day we ought to review our purpose, saying to ourselves: This day let me make a sound beginning, for what we have hitherto done is naught!
- -- Thomas A. Kempis

My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
- Marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), supreme commander of allied forces in 1918.

My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
- Marshall Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929), supreme commander of allied forces in 1918.