In the middle of difficulty, lies Opportunity!
Albert Einstein

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.  Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.  It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more than appearance, giftedness, or skill.  It will make or break a company...a church...a home.  The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.  We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 99% how I react to it.  And so it is with you...we are in charge of our Attitudes." 
Charles Swindoll

I love quotes. 
Quotes don't judge individuals, but only allow our thoughts to do the judging.  Quotes are the best "Food for Thought," to fill the minds of many with endless wonder and inspiration.
Quotes boost up the mind with energy to renew, redefine, restore and revitalize the soul.  The value of quotes lie in the content of character to always celebrate, "the rich diversity of thoughts and opinions, hopes and dreams that have shaped our country." from the book of American Values and Virtues.
Jeanbean

Each of us is two selves, and the great burden of life is to always try to keep that higher self in command.  Don't let the lower-self take over.
Martin Luther King Jr.

Let us not try to be the best or the worst of others. but let us make the effort to be the best of ourselves.
Marcus Garvey  In Negro World

I have said what I meant and meant what I said.  I have not done as well as I should like to have done, but I have done my best, frankly and forthrightly, no man can do more, and you are entitled to no less.
Adlai E. Stevenson

Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.  Try to be better than yourself.
William Faulkner

It is disagreeable to take stands.  It was always easier to compromise, always easier to let things go.  Too many woman, and I am one of them, it is extraordinarily difficult to care about anything enough to cause disagreement or unpleasant feelings, but I have come to the conclusion that this must be done for a time until we can prove our strength and demand respect for our wishes.
We will be enormously strengthened if we can show that we are willing to fight to the very last ditch for what we believe in.
Eleanor Roosevelt

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
Eleanor Roosevelt

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and, the wisdom to know the difference.
Serenity Prayer

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, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.  This is to have succeeded!  -Emerson  

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.  They must be felt with the heart.  -Helen Keller

what lies behind us
and what lies before us
are small matters
compared to
what lies
within us 
Emerson

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?  Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small doesn't serve the world.  There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine, as children do.  We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.  And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

from Nelson Mandela's Inaugural Speech May 10, 1994
written by Marianne Williamson from her book Return to Love 1992

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. 
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty,
believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
Louisa May Alcott

"Each friend represents
a world in us,
a world possibly not
born until they arrive,
and it is only
by this meeting that
a new world is born."
Anais Nin

"I'm fulfilled in what I do...I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes...the finer things in life..would make you happy.  My happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense."
 Coretta Scott King

"The biggest problem ordinary people face in the world today is what separates them from the well-known people.  Too bad there's too much intimidation involved in being known when there's not enough assertiveness to be content with where your at no matter how much temptation you have in always striving for something more."
Jeanbean

  Love not what you are
but only what you may
become.
Cervantes

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them to become what they are capable of being.  The invention of the IQ test did a great disservice to creativity in education.  Individuality, personality, and originality are too precious to become subservient to an isolated statistic.
Anynomous

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is a mystery.  And today?  Today is a gift.  That's why they call it the present.  Anonymous

The steeper the mountain the harder the climb, the better the view from the finishing line.  Anonymous

The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.  Unknown

Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop.  Mother Teresa