"He who finds diamonds must grapple in mud and mire because diamonds
are not found in polished stones.  They are made."

-- Henry B. Wilson

"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." 

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today to make a new ending.”

"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire,
which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which
kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity."

-Washington Irving

"Man's greatest actions are performed in minor struggles. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment and poverty are battlefields which have their heroes - obscure heroes who are at times greater than illustrious heroes."

-- Victor Hugo (1802-1885)