IF

     Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
     Are losing theirs and blaming it onto you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
     But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not being tired by waiting,
     Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
     And yet, don’t look too good, not talk too wise;

If you can dream and not make dream your master;
     If you can think and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
     And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
     Twisted by knives to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave life to broken,
     And stoop and build’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings,
     And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
     And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
     To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
     Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
     Or walk with kings – not lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
     If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
     With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
     And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.
- William Somerset Maugham

Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.
- C. C. Colton

Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions.
- Earl G. Stevens

Give what you have. To some one, it may be better than you dare to think.
- H.W. Longfellow

Telling the future by looking at the past assumes that conditions remain constant. This is like driving a car by looking in the rear view mirror.
- Herb Brody

I don't divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures, those who make it or those who don't. I divide the world into learners and non-learners.
- Benjamin Barber

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
- Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet (1861-1941)

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the law of human life, as certain as gravity; to live fully, we must learn to use things and love people... not love things and use people.
- Maria Montessori

We all live in suspense from day to day; in other words, you are the hero of your own story
- Mary McCarthy

You may judge others only according to your knowledge of yourself. Tell me now, who among us is guilty and who is unguilty?
- Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam]

Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit.
- [...]

My definition of success is total self-acceptance. We can obtain all of the material possessions we desire quite easily, however, attempting to change our deepest thoughts and learning to love ourselves is a monumental challenge. We may achieve success in our business lives but it never quite means as much if we do not feel good inside. Once we feel good about ourselves inside, we can genuinely lend ourselves to others.
- [...]

Those do not always win the winning of a race by the swift and strong, but also who decide to keep running.
- Greta Weitz – Olympic Marathoner

Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top ups.
- Peter Davies

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.
- [...]

Be courteous with all, but intimate with few; and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
- George Washington

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.
- John Wooden

Follow your heart and pursue your dreams, only then can you succeed.
- [...]

The best way to bring groups round your way of thinking and get an agreed set of aims is to make more of your undoubted ability to persuade and motivate, explain what you have in mind with both clarity and vigor and cut through the foe of misunderstandings.
- [...]

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.
- Alexander Graham Bell

The biggest mistake people make in life is not trying to make a living at doing what they most enjoy.
- Malcomb Forbes

The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke

Far better it is to dare mighty things, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those who neither enjoy much or suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
- Theodore Roosevelt

Reality is the cage of those who lack imagination.
- J.B.S. Haldane

It is easy to sit down and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.
- Al Batt

Above the titles of wife and mother, which, although dear, are transitory and accidental, there is the title human being, which precedes and out-ranks every other.
- Mary Ashton Livermore

That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way.
- Doris Lessing

No artist is ahead of his time. He ‘is’ his time; it is just that others are behind the times.
- Martha Graham

What we have to learn to do, we learn by doing.
- Aristotle

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars. General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer.
- William Blake

When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.
- Confucius

There is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone who says it cannot be done being interrupted by someone actually doing it.
- [...]

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
-Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Experience is a marvelous thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake whenever you make it again.
-Franklin P. Jones

If you wish to make a man your enemy, tell him simply `You are wrong.' This method works every time.
-Henry C. Link

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
-Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910) [Puddin'head Wilson]

Besides, we don't make mistakes here, we just have happy accidents.
-Bob Ross, [Joy of Painting]

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.
-May Sarton

Live your own life, for you will die your own death.
-Latin Proverb

Speak the truth, then leave quickly.
-Serbian Proverb

I never saw a wild thing
Sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead
From a bough
Without ever having felt sorry for itself.
- D. H. Lawrence

It is funny about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the very best you will very often get it.
- W. Somerset Maugham

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in the world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them.
- George Bernard Shaw

Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life. Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.
- Dr. David M. Burns

Imagination is more important than knowledge.
- Albert Einstein

Question everything.
- Albert Einstein

You only live once - but if you work it right, once is enough.
- [...]

Your options are limited only by your fear.
- [...]

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.
- [...]

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
- [...]

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
             -- Jeremy Kitson


Your will builds your dreams.

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Cheltuieste-te frenetic daca vrei sa primesti restul.
- [...]

Nu uita niciodata ca pielea se increteste, parul incarunteste, iar zilele se aduna in ani...
Dar ce e mai important se conserva; forta si determinarea ta nu au varsta.
Spiritul tau e cel care indeparteaza panzele de paianjen. Dincolo de orice punct de sosire e unul de plecare. Dincolo de orice reusita e o alta incercare. Cat timp traiesti, simte-te viu. Daca ti-e dor de ce faceai, fa-o din nou. Nu te pierde printre fotografii ingalbenite de timp... Mergi mai departe atunci cand toti se asteapta sa renunti. Nu lasa sa se toceasca taria pe care o ai in tine.
Fa astfel ca in loc de mila, sa impui respect.
Cand nu mai poti sa alergi, ia-o la trap. Cand nu poti nici asta, ia-o la pas. Cand nu poti sa mergi, ia bastonul. Insa nu te opri niciodata.

-- Madre Teresa de Calcutta
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La vie est un bien perdu pour celui qui ne l'a pas vécu comme il l'aurait voulu
- Mihail Eminescu

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