No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. 

~ William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827) 

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers. 

~ Kahlil Gibran, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use. 

~ Charles Schulz, cartoonist (1922-2000) 

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration. 

~ Andrew Carnegie, industrialist (1835-1919) 

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt 

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. 

~ John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (1917-1963) 

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in. 

~ Alan Alda, actor and director (b. 1936) 

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? 

~ Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president (1809-1865)  

Be happy. It's one way of being wise.

~ Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. 

~ Marianne Moore, poet (1887-1972) 

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love. 

~ Claude Monet, painter (1840-1926)

The cruelest lies are often told in silence. 

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

Patience is also a form of action. 

~ Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917)

How elegantly you manage disappointment will determine how quickly you'll experience success
~ Robin Sharma

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. 

~ Margaret Mitchell, novelist (1900-1949) 

Humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research. 

~ Marie Curie, scientist, Nobel laureate (1867-1934) 

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. 

~ Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809-1865) 

It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world. 

~ Will Durant, historian (1885-1981) 

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

~ Maya Angelou 

If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful after all. 

~ Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564)