Use what talents you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang the best. - Henry Van Dyke Every great work, every big accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement, comes apparent failure and discouragement. - Florence Scovel Shinn I am finished when I'm finished. - Michelangelo The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment, it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself . - Orson Swett Marden The Tao Te Ching says: When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need. Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have given up? This is the paradox of letting go. Let go, in order to achieve. - Mary Manin Morrissey On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow. - Friedrich Nietzsche There's an important difference between giving up and letting go. - Jessica Hatchigan If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this. - Spencer Silver, inventor of Post-It notes Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever. - Philip Adams As I started to picture the trees in the storm, the answer began to dawn on me. The trees in the storm don't try to stand up straight and tall and erect. They allow themselves to bend and be blown with the wind. They understand the power of letting go. Those trees and those branches that try too hard to stand up strong and straight are the ones that break. Now is not the time for you to be strong, Julia, or you, too, will break. - Julia Butterfly Hill Why should we all use our creative power...? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money. - Brenda Ueland What am I in the eyes of most people--a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person--somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then, even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum. - Van Gogh You can't really have style unless you've been someplace. I mean, you have to have been down. You have to have overcome something to have something. If you've had everything all your life, then you've never been tested and I don't think you're really the genuine article. You have to have come through something--because that's how a sword is made. It's made from a piece of iron from the ground, and it's forged and beaten--that's the great metaphor for the human being. If you're born a sword, you aren't a real sword. But if you're forged from this iron ore, then comes this beautiful sword. - Hector Elizondo Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. - Translation of African proverb I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again with new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do. - Van Gogh The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche A ship in harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for. - John A. Shedd Criticism polishes my mirror. - Rumi Opportunities are often disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. - Ann Landers If you examine a butterfly according to the laws of aerodynamics, it shouldn't be able to fly. But the butterfly doesn't know that so it flies. - Vincent Eades I must create a system, or be enslaved by another man's. - William Blake I feel there is something unexplored about women that only a woman can explore. - Georgia O'Keefe Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. - Nick Diamos Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men, 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 Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. - Martin Luther King, Jr. Be strong, believe in who you are; be strong, believe in what you feel. - Melissa Etheridge By working hard, I hope to make something good one day. I haven't yet, but I am pursuing it and fighting for it. - Van Gogh The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision. - Helen Keller Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children. - Kahlil Gibran Never again will I do anything for anyone that I do not feel directly from my heart. I will not attend a meeting, make a phone call, write a letter, sponsor or participate in any activity in which every fiber of my being does not resound yes. I will act with intent and be true to myself. - Oprah It is very dangerous to go into eternity with possibilities which one has oneself prevented from becoming realities. A possibility is a hint from God. One must follow it. - Soren Kierkegaard One of the biggest factors in success is the courage to undertake something. - James A. Worsham The difference between getting somewhere and nowhere is the courage to make an early start. - Charles M. Schwab We ought to face our destiny with courage. - Friedrich Nietzsche You can surmount the obstacles in your path if you are determined, courageous and hardworking… Do not fear pioneer, to venture down new paths of endeavor. - Ralph J. Bunche What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it. - Johann von Goethe Sometimes we look so intently toward the pinnacle that we stumble over the steps leading to it. Development begins just where you are. - Mrs. Herman Stanley I expect to pass through this world but once, any good thing, therefore, that I can do, let me do it now…for I shall not pass this way again. - Ralph Waldo Emerson When shall we live, if not now? - Elizabeth Barrett Browning If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security. It may mean giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning. As Dostoevsky put it: 'Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.' The real fear should be the opposite course. - Gail Sheehy Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. - Rumi When I was on Star Search, one of the producers told the other contestants, 'She'll never be famous; she's too tough, she's too NY, and she's too heavy.' I remember thinking, Gosh, he's gonna feel like a jerk when I'm famous. Through the negativity I learned to hear myself quite loudly. - Rosie O'Donnell Believe those who seek the truth, but doubt those who find it. - Andre Gide You can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can't wipe your friends on the couch. - Unknown Knowledge is Power. - Francis Bacon Here are two ways to put ourselves in control of our lives immediately: we can make a promise and keep it; or we can set a goal and work to achieve it. As we make and keep commitments, even small commitments, we begin to establish an inner integrity that gives us the awareness of self-control and the courage and strength to accept more of the responsibility for our own lives. By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little-by-little, our honor becomes greater than our moods. - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity. - Protester at anti-war march Stop for a moment, cease your work, and look around you. - Thomas Carlyle Creativity is contagious. You can catch it by being around other creative people. - Thomas Kinkade To know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; that is to have succeeded. - Ralph Waldo Emerson No one gets out of this world alive, so the time to live, learn, care, share, celebrate and love is now. - Leo Buscaglia Don't make the same mistake twice. - Life's Little Instruction Book Never retreat to a defensive position. If attacked for your ideas, counter good-humoredly but with faith in them. Make no excuses for your sincere beliefs. - Life's Little Instruction Book It is only by following your deepest instinct that you can lead a rich life, and if you let your fear of consequence prevent you from following that instinct, then your life will be safe, expedient and thin. - Katherine Butler Hathaway The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. - Dolly Parton Do more than is expected. - Life's Little Instruction Book Watch out for the squeaky wheel. - Byrd Baggett If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that's positive for them that taps important values, that gets them something they desire, and it has to be presented in a compelling way. That way, they feel inspired to follow. - Martin Luther King Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity. - Oprah If you really want something, you can figure out how to make it happen. - Cher Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or walk around. - Michael Jordan It's kind of fun to do the impossible. - Walt Disney Then give the world the best you have and the best will come back to you. - Madeline Bridges Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work another day in your life. - Confucius Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. - Carl Jung Life's under no obligation to gives us what we expect. - Margaret Mitchell Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backward and in high heels. - Faith Whittlesey Never be ashamed of honest tears. - Life's Little Instruction Book Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's own courage. - Anais Nin No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Eleanor Roosevelt There are only two ways to meet life. You may refuse to care until indifference becomes a habit, a defensive armor, and you are safe, but bored. Or, you can live greatly, and live greatly until life breaks you on its wheel. - Dorothy Canfield Fisher You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. - Colette It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more manhood to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind. - Alex Karras At the end of our lives, we'll regret the things we didn't do much more than the ones we did. - Life's Little Instruction Book We must reject not only the stereotypes that others hold of us, but also the stereotypes we hold of ourselves. - Shirley Chisholm To find a honey tree, first catch a bee. - Annie Dillard The purposes that writers serve must be their own. What you write is yours and nobody else's. Take your talent as far as you can and guard it with your life. Only you know how far that is; no editor knows. Writing well means believing in your writing and believing in yourself, taking risks, daring to be different, pushing yourself to excel. You will write only as well as you make yourself write. - William Zinsser If you feel that sitting blankly and staring out the window is sinful, then you will never write. - Joyce Carol Oates It's time to discover that we can be strong without sacrificing feminine traits; softness and strength can coexist. - Kathy Smith Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you into everything you touch. You are not responsible. You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it, and that way, be known. - Naomi Shihab Nye We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do. - Olin Miller Always have a plan, and believe in it. Nothing happens by accident. - Chuck Knox Always plan ahead. It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark. - Richard K. Cushing The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. - Moliere