“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

“There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose.”

“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”

“And as for the final sphere of love and friendship, I can only say it gets harder once the natural communities of college and hometown are gone... It takes work and commitment, demands toleration for human frailties, forgiveness for the inevitable disappointment and betrayals that come even with the best of relationships.”

“I've come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that's as unique as a fingerprint and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe lead you.”

“My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.”

“The stories of past courage...can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul. ”

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”

“I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose.”

“Joy and hope are never separate. I have never met a hopeful person who was depressed or a joyful person who had lost hope...It is important to become aware that at every moment of our life we have the opportunity to choose joy. It is in the choice that our true freedom lies, and that freedom is, in the final analysis, the freedom to love.”

“My friends are my estate.”

“I no longer scramble blindly through hardship. I no longer emerge from a bad time feeling relieved just to have survived. Instead of despairing, I try to find the lesson within the experience.”

“Music enters our bodies, commandeering the pulse in our veins, and reminds us that pleasure isn't a matter of feeling good but of feeling more alive.”

“I believe in love. I believe it transforms, transports, and transcends. I believe it fine-tunes goodness, solidifies strength, ripens resolve, eradicates rage, alleviates stress, and elevates empathy.”

“Be daring, be different, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers...”

“It's easier to go down a hill than up it, but the view is much better at the top.”

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway. If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway. What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway. Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.”

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”

“If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.”

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.”

“Most obstacles melt away when we make up our minds to walk boldly through them.”

“Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory.”

“Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strengths and resolutions.”

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

“Absence is to love as wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small and kindles the great. ”

“When things go wrong don't go with them.”

“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”

“Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.”

“They who know how to employ opportunities will often find that they can create them; and what we can achieve depends less on the amount of time we possess than on the use we make of our time. ”

“Every good act is charity. A man's true wealth hereafter is the good that he does in this world to his fellows. ”

“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.”

“If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative.”

“Embrace the faith that every challenge surmounted by your energy; every problem solved by your wisdom; every soul stirred by your passion; and every barrier to justice brought down by your determination will ennoble your own life, inspire others, serve your country, and explode outward the boundaries of what is achievable on this earth.”