Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain

To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence.  Mark Twain

Whatever you say, say it with conviction. Mark Twain

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.   William Shakespeare

When thought becomes excessively painful, action is the finest remedy. Salman Rushdie

Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness. Seneca

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in. Napoleon Bonaparte

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give. Winston Churchill

To change one's life: Start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. William James

The only cure for grief is action. G. H. Lewes

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering. Paulo Coelho

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. Freya Stark

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast. Oscar Wilde

No one can hurt me without my permission. Mahatma Ghandi

True friends stab you in the front. Oscar Wilde

The older one grows, the more one likes indecency. Virginia Woolf

The absence of alternatives clears the mind marvelously. Henry Kissinger

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. Carl Gustav Jung

Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting. Alan Dean Foster

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not. Oscar Wilde

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things. Albert Einstein

Contemplation often makes life miserable.  We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. Nicolas de Chamfort

It is well to be alone. It fertilizes the creative impulse. Max Nordau

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde

The things that we love tell us what we are. St. Thomas Aquinas

If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow. Oscar Wilde

I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. Everett Dirksen

When you get a thing the way you want it, leave it alone. Winston Churchill

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. Albert Einstein

Not all who wander are lost. J.R.R. Tolkien

Remember your humanity and forget the rest. Albert Einstein

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Leslie Poles Hartley

I never let schooling interfere with my education. Mark Twain

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Richard Waldo Emerson

An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea. Buddha

Always look up words in a good dictionary, even when you know what they mean. Paul Scott

The difference between the almost-right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. Mark Twain

Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear. Joseph Joubert

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. Winston Churchill

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. Albert Einstein

If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; but if you really make them think, they’ll hate you. Don Marquis

I know everything.  One has to, to write decently. Henry James

All generalizations are dangerous, even this one. Alexandres Dumas

Silence is the unbearable repartee. G.K. Chesterton

I am an optimist.  It does not seem too much use being anything else. Winston Churchill

The more specific you are, the more universal you are. Nancy Hale

George Moore wrote brilliant English until he discovered grammar. Oscar Wilde

Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything. Robert Frost

You can’t wait for inspiration.  You have to go after it with a club. Jack London

To escape criticism — do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. Elbert Hubbard

Writing is easy.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open up a vein. Red Smith

What a good thing Adam had—when he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before. Mark Twain

I do not mind lying, but I hate inaccuracy. Samuel Butler

An artist must know how to convince others of the truth of his lies. Pablo Picasso

This is the sort of English up with which I will not put. Winston Churchill