"Destiny is relentless. If you don't find it, it has no choice but to find you."
- Jeffrey Carlson as Zarf, All My Children, 12/27/06

"If you woke up breathing, congratulations! You get another chance."
- Author Unknown (From a forwarded email. I've seen and heard varying forms of this same sentiment many times from many sources, but something about the way this one was worded [and the timing when I read it] made it hit home.)

"Well, I know it wasn't you who held me down
Heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free
So oftentimes it happens that we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key."
- The Eagles, Already Gone, (written by Jack Tempchin and Bob Strandlund)

"It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time." - Tallulah Bankhead

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials." - Chinese proverb

"A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner." - English proverb

"Don't let life be something that happens to you." - John Edward

"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you're going to do now and do it." - William Durant, founder of General Motors

"Oz never did give nothin' to the tin man, that he didn't already have" - America, Tin Man

"Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand." - Woody Allen

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone." - Bill Cosby

"What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it." - Johann von Goethe

"The chains which once held us are only the chains which we've made." - Jewel, Deep Water

"The way to develop self-confidence is to do the thing you fear." - William Jennings Bryan

"The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - We must step up the stairs." - Vance Havner

"Tough times never last. Tough people do." - Robert Schuller

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

"I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." - Winston Churchill

"A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw

"In this world, you've a soul for a compass and a heart for a pair of wings." - Mary Chapin Carpenter

"Dreams come true; without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them." - John Updike

"Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is life, fight for it!" - Mother Teresa

"The nearest way to glory - a shortcut, as it were - is to strive to be what you wish to be thought to be." - Socrates, quoted in Cicero, 44 BC

"Love when you can, cry when you have to, be who you must, that's a part of the plan." - Dan Fogelberg, Part of The Plan

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." - Rush, Free Will

"Beauty, truth, friendship, love, creation - these are the great values of life. We can't prove them, or explain them, yet they are the most stable things in our lives." - Jesse Herman Holmes