– “A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.”
– “Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
– “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”
– “Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.”
– “Every artist was first an amateur.”
– “Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
– “For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
– “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”
– “Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life.”
– “In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.”
– “Insist on yourself; never imitate… Every great man is unique.”
– “It is not length of life, but depth of life.”
– “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.”
– “Life is not so short but that there is always time for courtesy.”
– “Life wastes itself while we are preparing to live.”
– “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air…”
– “Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.”
– “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
– “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.”
– “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”
– “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”
– “That which we persist in doing becomes easier for us to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”
– “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
– “Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.”
– “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children…to leave the world a better place…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
– “Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.”
– “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
– “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
– “Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.”
– “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”
– “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.” — André Gide
