Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. — Louisa May Alcott
Map out your future, but do it in pencil. The road ahead is as long as you make it. Make it worth the trip. — Jon Bon Jovi
Dreams aren’t a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. When I dream, I believe I am rehearsing my future. — David Copperfield
Goal setting is the process of turning dreams into plans, and your plans into realities. — Gary Medica
The world ages us too fast. We grow up too quickly, we stop dreaming too early, and we develop the ability to worry at far too young an age. — Doug Wecker
Reach beyond your grasp. Your goals should be grand enough to get the best of you.— Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
In the long run we really do shape our own lives; and then together we shape the world around us. The process never ends until we die, and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility. — Eleanor Roosevelt
My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment. — Oprah Winfrey
Bad start is no excuse. Too old or too young is no excuse. There is simply no bona fide excuse for not being super happy and successful. You control what you become. — Scott Alexander
There will be those who will tell you that you can’t make it because of where you live, because of how you look, because of the way you talk. We all have heard that. I almost listened.— L. Douglas Wilder
We must exchange the philosophy of excuses — what I am is beyond my control — for the philosophy of responsibility. — Barbara Jordan
This is your life. If you don’t have a plan for yourself, you’ll be part of someone else’s plan – you’ll be living someone else’s life.— Dave Croft
I am responsible for my own well-being, my own happiness. The choices and decisions I make directly influence the quality of my days.— Kathleen Andrus
Judge success not just by what you have accomplished, but by the person you have become.— Ranjana Clark
Let your life be defined by the things you pursue, rather than the things you possess. — Bobby Hendries
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.— John Burroughs
Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms— if you will only let them.— William James
That Mission statement up on the wall is your guiding star. If you aren’t going to live by it, then tear it down.— Vince Pfaff
Seek out that particular attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that…follow it.— William James
Life owes us a little; we owe it everything. The only true happiness comes from squandering ourselves for a purpose.— John Marm Brown
Dedicate your life to a cause greater than yourself, and your life will become a glorious romance and adventure.— Mack Douglas
Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.— Jim Rohn
If your number one concern is to make sure that everyone likes and approves of you, then you have sacrificed your uniqueness and, therefore, your excellence.— Dan Zadra
If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.— Martin Luther King, Jr.
‘What is my job on the planet?’ is one question we might do well to ask ourselves over and over again. Otherwise, we may wind up doing somebody else’s job and not even know it.— Jon Kabat-Zinn
Life expects something of you, and it is up to every individual to discover what it should be.— Victor Frankl
The circumstances of your life have uniquely qualified you to make a contribution. And if you don’t make that contribution, nobody else can make it.— Rabbi Harold Kushner
There is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost.— Martha Graham
There’s a difference between reputation and character. Reputation is who people think you are; character is who you really are. Reputation comes from others; character is in you.— Carol O’ Reilly
I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think I do.— Theodore Roosevelt
Being honest may not get you a lot of friends, but it will always get you the right ones.— John Lennon
If you want trust, trust others. If you want respect, respect others. If you want help, help others. If you want love and peace in your life, give them away. If you want great friends, be one. That’s how it works.— Dan Zadra
A recent survey asked 500 Fortune 1500 executives to identify their most important success principle. The most frequent answer was some variation of ‘Do unto others…’— Bill Meyer
We are very near to greatness: one step and we are safe; can we not take the leap?— Ralph Waldo Emerson
It isn’t all over; everything has not been invented; the human adventure is just beginning.— Gene Roddenberry
There are two ways to face the future. One way is with apprehension; the other is with anticipation.— Jim Rohn
Our children will create a world we cannot imagine; they will accomplish things we cannot even dream.— Kathleen T. Shaw
The reality is that changes are coming. They must come. We must all share in bringing them. — John Hersey
The future is in the hands of those who can give tomorrow’s generations reasons to hope.— Pierre Teilhard De Chardin
The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.— J.B.S. Haldane
Together we have the power, knowledge and experience to create a world beyond our wonder. Only loss of nerve can prevent us. That is all, loss of nerve.— James Dillet Freeman
What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows.— Alexandra Stoddard
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.— Clarissa Pinkola Estes
We forget that we ourselves are a part of history, and that we are condemned to perish if we lose the capacity for further growth and change.— Herman Hesse
Nearly every problem our world faces is currently being solved or leveraged by someone in the world. Imagine if we could only get all these good hearts and minds connected so that we can collectively tackle our problems.— Diane Branson
The best hope of solving all our problems lies in harnessing the diversity, the energy and the creativity of all our people.— Roger Wilkins
Every problem, adversity or setback carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit, if you will only stop to look.— Napoleon Hill
Knowing that we can make a difference in the world is a great motivator. How can we know this and not be involved?— Susan Jeffers
The circumstances of your life uniquely qualify you to make a contribution. And if you don’t make that contribution, nobody else can make it.— Rabbi Harold Kushner
We are called upon to become creators, to make the world new and in that sense to bring something into being which was not there before.— John Elof Boodin
The world’s problems cannot be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men and women who can dream of things that never were.— John F. Kennedy
It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter how many times you get it almost right. All that matters is that you get it right in the end.— Mark Cuban
Much of the satisfying work of life begins as an experiment – and no experiment is ever quite a failure.— Alice Walker
Don’t be discouraged by setbacks or failure. Failure is a normal, natural way of mapping the unknown.— Jack Matson
Don’t just tolerate your erros – honor them. Think of innovation as systematic error management.— Kevin Kelly
The only errors to avoid making are those that eliminate opportunities to try again.— Lazar Goldberg
To swear off making mistakes is very easy. All we have to do is swear off having ideas.— Leo Burnett
Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done, and done right.— Walt Disney
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.— Louis Pasteur
One idea leads to another. The teapot led Fulton to the steam engine, which led to the gas combustion engine, which led to the rocket propulsion system, which took us to the moon and back. — Trust Your Crazy Ideas
If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.— Isaac Newton
Ideas build on ideas. The primitive wheel, lever, awl, pulley, diode and transistor built on each other to become the modern computer.— Dan Zadra
Originality is not just doing something no one else has ever done, but doing what has been done countless times with new life, new breath.— Marie Chaplan
To put something in the world that was not there before, you have to be able to see that which others before you have overlooked.— George Vaillant
Only the most foolish of mice would hide in a cat’s ear. But only the wisest of cats would think to look there.— Scott Love
Did you know that right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?— Bernice Fitz-Gibbon
The real voyage of discovery lies not in seeking new lands, but in seeing the world with fresh eyes.— Marcel Proust
Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.— A. Szent-Gyorgi
Make your plans as fantastic as you like because 25 years from now they will seem mediocre. Make your plans 10 times as great as you first planned, and 25 years from now you will wonder why did not make them 50 times as great.— Henry Curtis
We will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be so low in price that no man making a good wage will be unable to own one.— Henry Ford
We all love big ideas. If a company lacks enthusiasm, if the people are bored, it’s time for a big idea to rally around.— Mark David