Every year I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given, the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which, shirking pain, misses happiness as well. No one ever yet was the poorer in the long run for having once in a lifetime "let out all the length of the reins."

- Mary Cholmondeley

I honor any man who in the conscious discharge of his duty dares to stand alone; the world, with ignorant, intolerant judgment, may condemn; the countenances of relatives may be averted and the hearts of friends grow cold; but the sense of duty done shall be sweeter than the applause of the world, the uncountenances of relatives, or the heart of friends.

- Charles Summer

When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece.

- John Ruskin

Life would be a perpetual flea hunt if a man were obliged to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, insinuations and misrepresentations which are uttered against him.

- Henry Beecher

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good fortune, I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth, I wimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

All seems beautiful to me.
I can repeat over to men and women,
You have done such good to me I would do the same for you,
I will review it for myself and you as I go.
I will scatter myself among men and women as I go,
I will toss new gladness and roughness among them.

- "The Open Road", by Walt Whitman

The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.

- Tennyson

When I was young, my ambition was to be one of the people who made a difference in the world.

My hope is to leave the world a little better for my having been there.

- Jim Henson