These just about sum up my current mindset:
"I'm not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship."
-Louisa May Alcott"You are not in business to be popular."
-Kirstie Alley"If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing."
-Margaret Thatcher"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."
-Mary Kay Ash"The penalty of success is to be bored by people who used to snub you."
-Nancy Astor"Work is either fun or drudgery; it depends on your attitude. I like fun."
-Colleen C. Barrett"We are not what we know, but what we are willing to learn."
-Mary Catherine Bateson"Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough."
-Mary McLeod Bethune"There are two ways of meeting difficulties. You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them."
-Phyllis Bottome"If what I do prove well, it won't advance.
They'll say it's stolen, or else it was by chance."
-Anne Bradstreet"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge; fitter to bruise than to polish."
-Anne Bradstreet"Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing."
-Harriet Braiker"Look twice befoer you leap."
-Charlotte Bronte"A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success."
-Dr. Joyce Brothers"Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then; life is dull without it."
-Pearl S. Buck"If human beings are perceived as potentials rather than problems, as possessing strengths instead of weaknessess, as unlimited rather than dull & unresponsive, then they thrive and grow to their capabilities."
-Barbara Bush"You just don't luck into things as much as you'd like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it's friendships or opportunities."
-Barbara Bush"Common sense is perhaps the most equally divided, but surely the most underemployed, talent in the world."
-Christiane Collage"To have a good enemy, choose a friend; he knows where to strike."
-Diane de Poitiers"You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims."
-Harriet Woods"If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people."
-Virginia Woolf"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."
-Ella Fitzgerald"The worst part of success is to try to find someone who is happy for you."
-Bette Midler"My grandfather once told me that there were two kinds of people: those who do the work and those who take the credit. He told me to try to be in the first group; there was much less competition."
-Indira Gandhi"Don't wait for your ship to come in, and feel angry & cheated when it doesn't. Get going with something small."
-Irene Kassorla"I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions."
-Lillian Hellman"The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
-Harper Lee"With increased opportunity comes increased stress. The stress comes from multiple conflicting demands and very little in the way of role models."
-Madeline Hemmings"Security is not the meaning of my life. Great opportunities are worth the risk."
-Shirley Hufstedler"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow talent to the dark place where it leads."
-Erica Jong"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."
-Muriel Strode"You can't build a reputation on what you intend to do."
-Liz Smith"Just go out there and do what you have to do."
-Martina Navratilova"Life is what we make it; always has been, always will be."
-Grandma Moses"I'm tough, ambitious and I know exactly what I want."
-Madonna...and that, as they say, is that! =)