“Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”

“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say ‘Why not?”

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being, with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”

“Aim higher in case you fall short.”

“I began to realise how important it was to be an enthusiast in life. He taught me that if you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good. Hot is no good either. White hot and passionate is the only thing to be.”

“The place where you made your stand never mattered. Only that you were there… and still on your feet.” 

“Stop worrying about your identity and concern yourself with the people you care about, ideas that matter to you, beliefs you can stand by, tickets you can run on. Intelligent humans make those choices with their brain and hearts and they make them alone. The world does not deliver meaning to you. You have to make it meaningful… and decide what you want and need and must do.”

“I think that one of these days,” he said, “you’re going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you’ve got to start going there. But immediately. You can’t afford to lose a minute. Not you.” 

“Do not let what you think they think of you make you stop and question everything you are.”

“Awake, arise or be for ever fall’n.”

“Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift.” 

“Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.”

“If I’ve learned one lesson from all that’s happened to me, it’s that there is no such thing as the biggest mistake of your existence. There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”

“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.”

“Too many of us are hung up on what we don’t have, can’t have, or won’t ever have. We spend too much energy being down, when we could use that same energy – if not less of it – doing, or at least trying to do, some of the things we really want to do.”

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, look to tomorrow, rest this afternoon.”

“Do not give way to useless alarm; though it is right to be prepared for the worst, there is no occasion to look on it as certain.” 

“Be the alligator girl. Be whatever your dreams and your luck will let you be. Wear your green cornflakes with pride. Snarl at the crowds, and do your best to make them flinch.”

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right.”

“You can be whatever you want – so long as you’re sure it’s what you actually want, rather than one of two equally dodgy choices foisted onto you.” 

“Helped are those who are content to be themselves; they will never lack mystery in their lives and the joys of self-discovery will be constant.”

“Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle.”

“Love the world and yourself in it, move through it as though it offers no resistance, as though the world is your natural element.”

“We have to make mistakes, it’s how we learn compassion for others.”

“Just because something doesn’t last forever, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t meaningful while it did last. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t important.”

“There is something freeing in seeing yourself in a new context. People have no preconceived notion of who you are, and there is relief in knowing that you can re-create yourself.” 

“There should be no room in your life for regret. If in the moment of doing you felt clarity, you felt certainty, then why feel regret later?” 

“You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.”

“Everyone we’ve lost, we’ll find. Or they’ll find us.” 

“She must find a boat and sail in it. No guarantee of shore. Only a conviction that what she wanted could exist, if she dared to find it.”

“You are your best thing.” 

“Where does it all lead? What will become of us? These were our young questions, and young answers were revealed. It leads to each other. We become ourselves.”