“I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.”

— Roger Ebert

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.

Do it or don’t do it.

It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.”

— Steven Pressfield

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.

If I paint a wild horse, you might not see the horse... but surely you will see the wildness!

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.

There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.

Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.

What do you think an artist is? ...he is a political being, constantly aware of the heart breaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”

— Pablo Picasso

“These pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.

There is a basket of fresh bread on your head, yet you go door to door asking for crusts.

You have forgotten the One
who doesn’t care about ownership,
who doesn’t try to turn a profit
from every human exchange.

Soul, if you want to learn secrets,

your heart must forget about
shame
 and dignity.
You are God’s lover,

yet you worry
what people
are saying.

When you go through a hard period,
When everything seems to oppose you,
... When you feel you cannot even bear one more minute,
NEVER GIVE UP!
Because it is the time and place that the course will divert!

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.

What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.”

— Rumi "The Essential Rumi"

“If anyone on the verge of action should judge himself according to the outcome, he would never begin. Even though the result may gladden the whole world, that cannot help the hero; for he knows the result only when the whole thing is over, and that is not how he became a hero, but by virtue of the fact that he began.”

— Søren Kierkegaard “Fear and Trembling”

Failure does not exist.

It only exists to those who are more concerned with appearing successful.

In order to continue growing as a person with your respective craft, you have to set unreasonable goals. That's the point. You have to aim outside of your comfort zone and push yourself to stretch for things that you cannot yet do. As we like to say around the office, "If you know what you're doing, you aren't trying hard enough."

However, in order to actually set goals far outside your comfort zone, you have to understand and be ok with the fact that you will "fail." You won't get there the first, or second, or third time. You will fall short. You will make mistakes and it won't be a straight shot to the end.

However, "failing" to meet the expectations you set for yourself when aiming outside your comfort zone actually moves you much closer towards your goals than if you were to "achieve" something easily within reach.

Thus: Achievement, in this sense, is actually detrimental. "Failure" is the real win.

The truly successful, the innovators, the creative geniuses, the legends all share this in common. They do not care about appearing successful or as having failed. They only care about knowledge of their craft, and they are willing to go to whatever length to get it. You can't discover anything new without "failing." You can't explore different ways of doing things without "failing." You can't forge a name of your own without going off the beaten path, getting lost, and then coming back and sharing what you've found.

Nicolas Cole

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.

Thomas Edison

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston S. Churchill 

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

Robert F. Kennedy

Never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.

Benjamin Franklin

We are all failures- at least the best of us are.

J.M. Barrie

Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Samuel Beckett

If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.

Henry David Thoreau

Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

Robert T. Kiyosaki

The phoenix must burn to emerge.

Janet Fitch

How much you can learn when you fail determines how far you will go into achieving your goals.

Roy T. Bennett

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

Elbert Hubbard

The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.

Henry Ford

I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.

John Keats

If you don’t try at anything, you can’t fail… it takes back bone to lead the life you want

Richard Yates