Virgil

"Each of us bears his own Hell."

- Virgil, 'The Aeneid'

Maya Angelou

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

J. K. Rowling

"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."

- J. K. Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone"

Edith Wharton

"The thing one's so certain of in advance: can it ever make one's heart beat as wildly?"

- 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Wharton

Coldplay

"Lights will guide you home and ingnite your bones."

- Coldplay, 'Fix You'

Maya Angelou

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

– Maya Angelou, poet and author

Franklin D. Roosevelt

"It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something."

- Franklin D. Roosevelt, politician, former president of the USA

John Updike

"Without love, we die, or at best live stunted."

- 'Gertrude and Claudius' by John Updike

W. B. Yeats

"When sleep at last has come
On limbs that had run wild.
What is it but nightfall?
No, no, not night but death;
Was it needless death after all?"

- 'Easter 1916' by W. B. Yeats

Tom Krause

“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”

– Tom Krause, motivational speaker, teacher and coach

Maya Angelou

"Nat King Cole warned the world to 'straighten up and fly right.' As if they could, as if human beings could make a choice."

- 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings' by Maya Angelou

The Beatles

“And when the night is cloudy, there is still a light that shines on me”

- The Beatles, 'Let It Be'

George Bernard Shaw

“If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you'd best teach it to dance.”

– George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic

Bob Dylan

“No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.”

- Bob Dylan, singer

Friedrich Nietzsche

"In truth, there was only one Christian, and he died on the cross."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

- Martin Luther King Jr., social activist and reformer

Lillian Hellman

"Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth."

- Lillian Hellman, playwright

Oscar Wilde

"A kiss may ruin a human life."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Owl City

"When violet eyes get brighter
And heavy wings get lighter
I'll touch the sky and feel alive again."

- Owl City, 'Vanilla Twilight'

William Shakespeare

"There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may."

- 'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

Robert Frost

"'Men work together,' I told him from the heart,
'Whether they work together or apart.'"

- 'The Tuft of Flowers' by Robert Frost

William Shakespeare

"Love is not love
Which alters where it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to the remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark"

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (Sonnet 116)

Laurence J. Peter

"Speak when you are angry - and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret."

- Laurence J. Peter, teacher and writer

H. L. Mencken

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking."

- H. L. Mencken, journalist, editor, satirist, critic

Harold Wilson

"Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death."

- Harold Wilson, politician, former Prime Minister of Britain

Harper Lee

"If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other?"

- 'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee

Ambrose Bierce

"Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another."

- "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce, journalist, author and satirist

Henry David Thoreau

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, developmental critic

Adrienne Rich

"Was it worth while to lay -
with infinite exertion -
a roof I can't live under?"

- 'The Roofwalker' by Adrienne Rich

In this poem, Rich talks about her fear of exposing herself artistically, but also of the unhappiness that comes with stifling her creativity. She talks of the male-dominated world of poetry, which she is afraid to enter, because she will be vulnerable, exposed, but she wonders in these lines if the effort it has taken to restrict herself creatively has even been worth it, as now she feels that she can no longer hide beneath the roof she has built for herself. In addition, I think it's interesting that the term "glass ceiling" had not been coined at the time this poem was written (1961) yet when we read it now, it has that double meaning, although Rich's ceiling is self-constructed.

Dorothy Parker

"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm."

- Dorothy Parker, poet and satirist

Alfred Tennyson

"Hope smiles on the threshold of the year to come, whispering that it will be happier."

- Alfred Tennyson, poet