126
Great men, I say, often rejoice at crosses of fortune just as brave soldiers do at wars.
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Attribution
127
We are responsible for what we are; and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves.
128
Perhaps there is no more important component of character than steadfast resolution.
129
The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·Citizenship in a Republic, in African and European Addresses·April 23, 1910
130
success--the real success--does not depend upon the position you hold, but upon how you carry yourself in that position
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Conditions of Success, an address at the Cambridge Union·May 26, 1910
131
In this life we get nothing save by effort.
Theodore Rooseveltverified·The Strenuous Life, an address before the Hamilton Club, Chicago·April 10, 1899
132
Desire is a manifestation of power.
133
Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an efficient manner.
134
Every person naturally wants to become all that he is capable of becoming; this desire to realize innate possibilities is inherent in human nature; we cannot help wanting to be all that we can be.
135
Success in life is becoming what you want to be.
136
The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.
137
You are to become a creator, not a competitor.
138
There is no short cut to the making of these ideals into glad realities.
139
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.
140
If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.
141
Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone.
142
Excitements, ideas, and efforts, in a word, are what carry us over the dam.
143
The transformation, moreover, is a chronic one: the new level of energy becomes permanent.
144
Ideal aspirations are not enough, when uncombined with pluck and will.
145
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Wrongly attributed
This is Will Durant, not Aristotle, and Durant is not translating -- he is summarising the Nicomachean Ethics in his own words and marking the difference by dropping the quotation marks he uses on either side of it. The nearest thing in Aristotle is that virtues are formed in a man by his doing the actions, which Durant does put in quotation marks in the same sentence. The memorable half is the half Durant wrote. It usually circulates with a therefore inserted and the excellence turned into a moral instruction, neither of which is in the book.
146
God helps them that help themselves, as Poor Richard says.
Attribution contested
Quoted constantly as scripture. It is nowhere in the Bible, which says something close to the opposite in several places. Franklin printed it in Poor Richard's Almanack and gathered it here in 1758, but he did not coin it either: he presents it as an existing proverb, and versions of it appear in Algernon Sidney's Discourses in 1698 and, earlier still, in Aesop.
147
Our attempts should be not to extinguish nature, but to repress it; not to stand unmoved at distress, but endeavour to turn every disaster to our own advantage. Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Wrongly attributed
The single most-shared sentence ever credited to Confucius, and it is an Irish novelist's. Goldsmith wrote it for the Public Ledger in 1760 and collected it in 1762, in a series of letters supposedly by a Chinese visitor. Letter VII opens with a headnote in Goldsmith's own hand: the Editor thinks proper to acquaint the reader that the greatest part of the following letter seems to him to be little more than a rhapsody of sentences borrowed from Confucius, the Chinese philosopher. Two paragraphs later the narrator says he holds the volume of Confucius in his hand. That framing is precisely how the line became Confucius's, and later Mandela's. Note also the comma after glory, which the popular version drops, and that Goldsmith wrote the same sentence again in Letter XXII with a different opening.
148
I won't have a problem with you if you aim high and miss, but I will have a real problem if you aim low and hit.
Unverified attribution
Wording taken from a viewer's transcription of the video; no published transcript exists that we could find. Attributed to the speech, in which Rigsby is quoting his father.
149
Do something today to get closer to your goals. Even if something goes wrong, you will learn and recover. You don't have to figure out your entire life today. Make that one call. Go for that one discussion. Step out and show up. That's enough for today.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown. This is a complete-sentence excerpt of the supplied transcription.
150
If you dream of it, it isn't impossible. You long for it because it's meant for you. You are meant to drop fears and inhibitions and chase what sets your soul on fire. A shake up in your current life is almost always followed by something better, something awesome.
Spread Cheer / Motivational Quotes (@spreadcheer1)unverified·Post attributed to @spreadcheer1 (user-supplied transcription)
Unverified attribution
Account attribution and wording were supplied by a user. The account is identified as the reported sharer; original authorship and the direct post have not been independently verified. The publication date is unknown. This is a complete-sentence excerpt of the supplied transcription.