Words That Matter

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
—Epictetus, philosopher

building our dreams rather than tearing down others’

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face…You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

—Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”

—Anaïs Nin, author

“Miracles sometimes happen, but more often they’re made of faith and wit and hope and imagination, to say nothing of sweat.”

—Tom Waldman, writer

“What I know for sure is that no matter where you stand right now—on a hilltop, in a gutter, at a crossroads, in a rut—you need to give yourself the best you have to offer in this moment. This is it. Rather than depleting yourself with judgments about what you haven’t done, who you could have become, why you haven’t moved faster, or what you should have changed, redirect that energy toward the next big push—the one that takes you from enough to better. The one that takes you from adequate to extraordinary. The one that helps you rise up from a low moment and reach for your personal best.”

—Oprah

“The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.”

—George Bernard Shaw, playwright

fullness of your life—you can live fearlessly. Because you come to realize that if you just keep breathing, you cannot be conquered.”

—Oprah

“If you can allow yourself to breathe into the depth, wonder, beauty, craziness, and strife—everything that represents the

“My life…is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.”

—Gilda Radner, actress