To Keep Me Going.

I'm posting some inspirational quotes that I've had taped to my computer monitor at work for the past two years. These kept me focused when times got tough and I still need to reference them from time to time.

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed." - Theodore Roosevelt

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone." - Orison Sweet Marden

"It is always better to be an original than an imitation." - Theodore Roosevelt

"You have to have enough confidence in yourself to look beyond and take the chance-that is, to say to yourself, 'This is an opportunity that I want. I may not be totally prepared for it, but I want to do it.' You know how to step out beyond the boundaries-not knowing what's out there, but knowing you want to pursue it." - Michael Wiggins

"What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think...you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it. It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." - Emerson

"There is a flickering spark in us all, which, if struck at just the right age,... can light the rest of our lives, elevating our ideals, deepening our tolerance and sharpening our appetite for knowledge about the rest of the world. Educational and cultural exchanges...provide a perfect opportunity for this precious spark to grow." - Ronald Reagan

"It is not the critic who counts;
not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
the credit belongs to the person
who is actuall in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who errs and comes short again and again;
who knows great enthusiasms,
the great devotions;
who spends themselves in a worthy cause;
who at best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at worst, if they fail, at least fail while
DARING GREATLY
so that their place shall never be
with those timid souls
who know neither victory or defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt