I'm a sucker for inspirational quotes...

[Vagabond]

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Teddy Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

[Vacman]

Vagabond,

What a great quote!

Specifically this part:

"...so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Thinking about that actually makes me sad.

I would have much rather tried and failed than to have never tried at all.

I think some of the greatest regrets people have are the things they never did.

Even if you do fail, just get up and keep goin! Persistence is a mighty force!

It's quotes like that which can help give you the motivation to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and realize that failure is not defeat unless you don't get back up again.

[turk]

Hi,

Those are great quotes.

Whenever I feel discouraged what works for me is I remember back in 1400.... not that far distance every one thought the world was flat. EVERYONE as in it was a FACT.

Of course today pretty funny to think you'd fall off the planet once reaching the edge of an ocean.

So, it's likely all the FACTs of today that govern my world will be funny to my great-great-grand kids.

[CobaltSailor]

I wouldn't say EVERYONE. Even as these countries would have ships sail through the north sea & med. sea, they'd have to notice a change. Royalty & nobles knew better, as well as other educated folks.

Don't always believe everything you read in school A good example would be "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. A totally different side of history that was kept out of the text books or altered. IE: Columbus being a genocidal maniac

[final_id]

I hate inspirational quotes. They make me feel guilty about being me. All that Teddy Roosevelt stuff about being strong and stuff ... I always thought that was what made people sign up to be a Private in the Army. I didn't want to be a Private, I wanted to be the General. And I sure as hell didn't want to do forty years of KP and combat in order to get there.

I do have some quotes I keep in mind.

1.
This
is what you shall do:

Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
stand up for the stupid and crazy,
devote your income and labor to others,
hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown
or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful uneducated persons
and with the young and with the mothers of families,
read these leaves in the open air
every season of every year of your life,
reexamine all you have been told
at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul,

and your very flesh shall be a great poem
and have the richest fluency not only in its words
but in the silent lines of its lips and face
and between the lashes of your eyes
and in every motion and joint of your body. ...

The poet shall not spend his time in unneeded work. He shall know that the ground is always ready plowed and manured ... others may not know it but he shall. He shall go directly to the creation. His trust shall master the trust of everything he touches ... and shall master all attachment.

Walt Whitman