Our way is not soft grass, it’s a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upwards, forward, toward the sun.
—Ruth Westheimer (b.1928) German-American Sex Therapist
No matter how far a person can go the horizon is still way beyond you.
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American Novelist
Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
—Anne Frank (1929–45) Holocaust Victim
Any man’s life will be filled with constant, unexpected encouragements of this kind if he makes up his mind to do his level best each day of his life — that is, tries to make each day reach as nearly as possible the high-water mark of pure, unselfish, useful living.
—Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) African-American Educationist
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
—Duke Ellington (1899–1974) American Jazz Pianist, Composer, Bandleader
Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.
—Theodore Isaac Rubin (1923–2019) American Psychiatrist, Author
A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Philosopher, Musician, Physician
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Historian, Political Leader, Explorer
You’re not obligated to win. You’re obligated to keep trying to do the best you can every day.
—Marian Wright Edelman (b.1939) American Activist, Advocate
Act as if the maxim of your action were to become through your will a be general natural law.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
I have found in life that if you want a miracle you first need to do whatever it is you can do—if that’s to plant, then plant; if it is to read, then read; if it is to change, then change; if it is to study, then study; if it is to work, then work; whatever you have to do. And then you will be well on your way of doing the labor that works miracles.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
There is nothing of which every man is so afraid, as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
How can a man come to know himself? Never by thinking, but by doing. Try to do your duty and you will know at once what you are worth.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my heart to do it well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have devoted myself completely; in great aims and in small I have always thoroughly been in earnest.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
Did you ever hear of a man who had striven all his life faithfully and singly toward an object, and in no measure obtained it? If a man constantly aspires, is he not elevated? Did ever a man try heroism, magnanimity, truth, sincerity, and find that there was no advantage in them-that it was a vain endeavor?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts—it’s what you do with what you have left.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
If a man is called to be a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
They do not love that do not show their love. The course of true love never did run smooth. Love is a familiar. Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but Love.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
People who cannot invent and reinvent themselves must be content with borrowed postures, secondhand ideas, fitting in instead of standing out.
—Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American Business Academic, Author
When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.
—William Arthur Ward (1921–94) American Author
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, and doing well whatever you do without thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, not because it is sought after.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
God does not judge us by the multitude of works we perform, but how well we do the work that is ours to do. The happiness of too many days is often destroyed by trying to accomplish too much in one day. We would do well to follow a common rule for our daily lives—DO LESS, AND DO IT BETTER
—Dale Turner (1917–2006) American Priest, Columnist, Epigrammist
The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstance permit. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
—Unknown
It is the ultimate wisdom of the mountains that a man is never more a man than when he is striving for what is beyond his grasp.
—James Ramsey Ullman (1907–71) American Writer, Mountaineer
If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it, when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it, even if I did not have the ability in the beginning.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Do your best every day and your life will gradually expand into satisfying fullness.
—Horatio Dresser (1866–1954) American New Thought Religious Leader
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