Be Better than Yourself

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

William Faulkner (1897-1962); novelist, Nobel Prize winner

More Kindness Needed

“We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness.”

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977); comic actor, filmmaker, writer

Power to Imagine Better

“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.”

J.K. Rowling (born 1965); novelist

Do What you Love

“The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking, don't settle.”

Steve Jobs (1955-2011); Co-founder Apple Inc.

Do What Makes You Come Alive!

“Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Howard Thurman (1899-1981); author, philosopher, theologian, educator, civil rights leader

Facing Problems

“Self-acceptance comes from meeting life's challenges vigorously. Don't numb yourself to your trials and difficulties, nor build mental walls to exclude pain from your life. You will find peace not by trying to escape your problems, but by confronting them courageously. You will find peace not in denial, but in victory.”

Swami Sivananda (1887-1963); spiritual leader, author, physician

New Beginnings

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.”

Lao Tzu (600-531); philosopher

What We See

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

John Lubbock (1834-1913); Biologist, politician

The Social Butterfly Effect is Real!

“I firmly believe in small gestures: pay for their coffee, hold the door for strangers, or over tip, smile  be kind even when you don’t feel like it, pay compliments, chase the kid’s runaway ball down the sidewalk and throw it back to him, try to be larger than you are— particularly when it’s difficult. People do notice, people appreciate. I appreciate it when it’s done to (for) me. Small gestures can be an effort, or actually go against our grain (“I’m not a big one for paying compliments…”), but the irony is that almost every time you make them, you feel better about yourself. For a moment life suddenly feels lighter, a bit more Gene Kelly dancing in the rain.”

Jonathan Carroll (born 1949); Author

Strength and Will

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948); Indian political and spiritual leader

Happy Duty

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.”

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894); essayist, poet, novelist