“She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. To all humankind besides Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends she was no more than a frequently passing thought.”— Thomas Hardy, amazon.com
“Sometimes I remind myself that I almost skipped the party, that I almost went to a different college, that the whim of a minute could have changed everything and everyone. Our lives, so settled, so specific, are built on happenstance.”— Anna Quindlen, amazon.com
“I have scars on my hands from touching certain people... Certain heads, certain colours and textures of human hair leave permanent marks on me.”— J. D. Salinger, amazon.com
“Courage is only the second; hardship, poverty, and want are the best school for the soldier.”— Napoléon Bonaparte, amazon.com
“You will learn to make better decisions in life with experience and time.”— Robert Tew, goodreads.com
“I don’t really want to become normal, average, standard. I want merely to gain in strength, in the courage to live out my life more fully, enjoy more, experience more. I want to develop even more original and more unconventional traits.”— Anaïs Nin, amazon.com
“My past has not defined me, destroyed me, deterred me, or defeated me; it has only strengthened me.”— Steve Maraboli, amazon.com
“If you didn’t grow up like I did then you don’t know, and if you don’t know it’s probably better you don’t judge.”— Junot Dìaz, amazon.com
“Do not waste time regretting shoulds or might have beens. A 'Do it!' mindset focuses on the here and now.”— Bev James, amazon.com
“Do not cry because they are past! Smile, because they once were!”— Ludwig Jacobowski, quoteinvestigator.com
“It is wise to keep in mind that neither success nor failure is ever final.”— Roger Babson, goodreads.com
“You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.”— William Faulkner, amazon.com
“I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t been self-destructive in some way. Who hasn’t gone through some sort of bout of self-loathing. You’ve got to bang yourself around a bit to know yourself.”— Johnny Depp, huffingtonpost.co.uk