The man in the arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

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 or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.

Shakespeare

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
What distinguishes us one from another is our dreams.

Whether they be dreams about worldly or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about…

We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch, the country of our birth,
or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die; nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.

But within this realm of choicelessness, We do choose how to live.


Joseph Epstein

The secret to happiness - Learning how to do your work and doing it. :)

The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make others so.

Robert Green Ingersoll