“‘If only’ is the excuse of the loser; ‘I can’ is the affirmation of the winner.”

A pinch of praise is worth a pound of scorn. A dash of encouragement is more helpful than a dipper of pessimism. A cup of kindness is better than a cupboard of criticism.

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends. Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.

We are more than what we do much more than what we accomplish far more than what we possess.

Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.

A success is one who decided to succeed and worked. A failure is one who decided to succeed and wished.

To bear defeat with dignity, to accept criticism with poise, to receive honors with humility – these are marks of maturity and graciousness.

We can be resentful of our age, or we can be grateful for having attained it.

Faith is knowing there is an ocean because you have seen a brook.

A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful.

Do more than believe: practice.

Study while others are sleeping; work while others are loafing; prepare while others are playing; and dream while others are wishing.

Encourage me, and I will not forget you.

Once trust is tarnished, it is hard to restore it to its original glow.

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

I will persist. I will always take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another.

Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared.

Haters are all failures. It’s 100% across the board. No one who is truly brilliant at anything is a hater.

Someone else’s success does not equal a failure for you.

There are resources to help and simple steps that parents, preschools, businesses, and communities can take to help our kids succeed, because we’re all in this together, and that’s what the Too Small to Fail Initiative is all about.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

Of course this chattering diary is a facade, the literary equivalent of the everyday smiling face which hides the inward ravages of jealousy, remorse, fear and the consciousness of irretrievable moral failure. Yet such pretenses are not only consolations but may even be productive of a little ersatz courage.