There are obstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in the shadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There are noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees. No renown rewards, and no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, and poverty and battlefields which have their heroes.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)
A sense of duty is useful in work, but offensive in personal relations. People wish to be liked, not endured with patient resignation.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)
The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
—Elbert Hubbard (American Writer)
Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
—Joseph Addison (English Essayist)
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)
Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason: they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. Those works, therefore, are the most valuable, that set our thinking faculties in the fullest operation. understand them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (English Angelic Priest)
I trust that everything happens for a reason, even when we’re not wise enough to see it.
—Oprah Winfrey (American TV Personality)
Success is counted sweetest by those who ne’er succeed.
—Emily Dickinson (American Poet)
So long as a person is capable of self-renewal, he is a living being.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (Swiss Philosopher)
Man is a rational animal—so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents.
—Bertrand A. Russell (British Philosopher)
It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
—William Blake (English Poet)
Four things come not back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life, and the neglected opportunity.
—Arabic Proverb
Discipline yourself to do the things you need to do when you need to do them, and the day will come when you will be able to do the things you want to do when you want to do them!
—Zig Ziglar (American Author)