Guillaume Apollinaire

"'Come to the edge,' he said.
They said: 'We can't. We are afraid.'
'Come to the edge.'
'We can't. We will fail.'
'Come to the edge.'
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew."

--Guillaume Apollinaire

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Albert Pike

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

--Albert Pike
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C.S. Lewis

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither."

--C.S. Lewis
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Dr. Martin Luther King

"If man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

--Dr. Martin Luther King
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Betty Bender

"Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death."

--Betty Bender
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Alex Noble

"If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day."

--Alex Noble

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Reinhold Niebuhr

"Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime, therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone. Therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness."

--Reinhold Niebuhr

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Soren Kierkegaard

"The greatest danger, that of losing one's own self, may pass off as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, that of an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc., is sure to be noticed."

--Soren Kierkegaard
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Buddhist Teaching

Act as if the future of the Universe depends on what you do, while laughing at yourself for thinking that your actions make any difference.

--Buddhist Teaching
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Neil B. Weisman

"Though there are exceptions, bigger is not always better, and louder is not always more true. There is much good to be found in ordinary days, even when they appear to be ho-hum and routine. So for inner health, seek deliverance from addictions to the spectacular. Cherish the ordinary. Woe to us who are so deafened by the whirlwind that we cannot hear the whisper."

--Neil B. Weisman
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Dag Hammarskjold

"I don't know Who--or What-- put the question. I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer 'Yes' to Someone--or Something--and from that hour was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal."

--Dag Hammarskjold
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John W. Gardner

"We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within."

--John W. Gardner
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Robert S. Eliot

"If I knew I only had six months to live: 1) What would I have to do? 2) What would I want to do? and 3) What are the things I would neither have to do nor want to do?"

--Robert S. Eliot
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Rose Kennedy

"Crowding a life does not always enrich it."

--Rose Kennedy
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Sheila Graham

"You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world."

--Sheila Graham
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Elbert Hubbard

"To have beautiful old age, you must live a beautiful youth, for we ourselves are posterity, and every man is his own ancestor. I am today because I was yesterday what I was."

--Elbert Hubbard

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Albert Schweitzer

"You know of the disease in Central Africa called sleeping sickness...There also exists a sleeping sickness of the soul. Its most dangerous aspect is that one is unaware of its coming. That is why you have to be careful. As soon as you notice the slightest sign of indifference, the moment you become aware of the loss of a certain seriousness, of longing, of enthusiasm, and zest, take it as a warning. You should realize your soul suffers if you live superficially."

--Albert Schweitzer
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Leo Buscaglia

"Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?'"

--Leo Buscaglia
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Martin Luther King, Jr.

"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."

--Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Mahatma Gandhi

"Live as if you would die tomorrow; learn as if you would live forever."

--Mahatma Gandhi

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W. Beran Wolfe

"If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator."

--W. Beran Wolfe

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Thich Nhat Hanh

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

--Thich Nhat Hanh

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Sophocles

"Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness."

--Sophocles

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Robert Louis Stevenson

"There is no duty we so underrated as the duty of being happy. By being happy we sow anonymous benefits upon the world."

--Robert Louis Stevenson

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James Oppenheim

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet."

--James Oppenheim
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James M. Barrie

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."

--James M. Barrie
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Dennis Waitley

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."

--Dennis Waitley
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Brother David Steindl-Rast

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy -- because we will always want to have something else or something more."

--Brother David Steindl-Rast

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Leo Tolstoy

"Work is necessary. If you want a good disposition of your spirit, work until you become tired. But not until you become exhausted. A good spiritual disposition can be destroyed by excessive work as well as by idleness."

--Leo Tolstoy

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Betrand Russell

"The root of the matter is a very simple and old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it for fear of the derisive smile with which cynics will greet my words. The thing I mean--please forgive me for mentioning it--is love, or compassion. If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a reason for courage, a guide in action, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty. If you feel this, you have all that anybody should need in the way of religion."

--Betrand Russell

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