Theodore Roosevelt

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, 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 and comes short again and again; who knows the triumph of great achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt

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Allan K. Chalmers

"The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."

--Allan K. Chalmers

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Eric Hoffer

"The majority prove their worth by keeping busy. A busy life is the nearest thing to a purposeful life."

--Eric Hoffer

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Bertrand Russell

"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."

--Bertrand Russell

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Christopher Morley

"There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way."

--Christopher Morley

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Abbe Prince

"What matters is not the difference between those who believe and those who don’t, but those who care and those who don’t."

--Abbe Prince

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Arthur Schopenhauer

"The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom."

--Arthur Schopenhauer

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Logan Pearsall Smith

"There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second."

--Logan Pearsall Smith

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Robert S. De Ropp

"What people really need and demand from life is not wealth, comfort, or esteem but games worth playing. He who cannot find a game worth playing is apt to fall prey to accidie -- paralysis of the will, a failure of appetite, a condition of generalized boredom, total disenchantment -- 'God, of God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!'”

--Robert S. De Ropp

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Publilius Syrus

"No man is happy who does not think himself so."

--Publilius Syrus

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Cervantes

"Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world."

--Cervantes

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Doris Lessing

"It’s not damaging, it’s not poisoning to do without something one really wants...What’s terrible is to pretend that the second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don’t need love when you do; or that you like your work when you know quite well you’re capable of better."

--Doris Lessing

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Garrison Keillor

"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known."

--Garrison Keillor

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George E. Vallant

"Hans Selye is wrong; it is not stress that kills us. It is effective adaptation to stress that permits us to live."

--George E. Vallant

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Edward Dahlberg

"Man pines to live but cannot endure the days of his life."

--Edward Dahlberg

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Henry Beecher Ward

"Happiness is not the end of life: character is."

--Henry Beecher Ward

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"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

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Benjamin Franklin

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that is the stuff life is made of."

--Benjamin Franklin

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Mark Twain

"Plan for the future because that’s where you are going to spend the rest of your life."

--Mark Twain

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John Howe

"What folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet to have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal."

--John Howe

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Peter M. Senge

"The essence of personal mastery is learning how to generate and sustain creative tension in our lives."

--Peter M. Senge

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Hosea Ballou

"Weary the path that does not challenge."

--Hosea Ballou

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Matthew Arnold

"To have the sense of creative activity is the great happiness and great proof of being alive."

--Matthew Arnold

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Rollo May

"One of the ironies of the human being is that when he has lost his way, he travels twice as fast."

--Rollo May

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Ralph Waldo Emerson

"When a man begins to live more seriously within, he begins to live more simply without."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Thomas Robert Gaines

"It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty, but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is good, but work and desire are invincible."

--Thomas Robert Gaines

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Ernest Becker

"People are capable of the highest generosity and self-sacrifice. But they have to feel and believe that what they are doing is truly heroic, timeless, and supremely meaningful. The crisis of modern society is precisely that people no longer feel heroic."

--Ernest Becker

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Jules Renard

"As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more."

--Jules Renard

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Arthur Somers Roche

"Worry is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained."

--Arthur Somers Roche

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