A man's work

In the morning, when you are sluggish about getting up, let this thought be present: "I am rising to a man's work."

~ Marcus Aurelius

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble.

~ Helen Keller

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye.

~ Helen Keller

Here is the very heart and soul of the matter. If you look to lead, invest at least 40% of your time managing yourself — your ethics, character, principles, purpose, motivation, and conduct. Invest at least 30% managing those with authority over you, and 15% managing your peers. Use the remainder to induce those you “work for” to understand and practice the theory. I use the terms “work for” advisedly, for if you don’t understand that you should be working for your mislabeled “subordinates,” you haven’t understood anything. Lead yourself, lead your superiors, lead your peers, and free your people to do the same. All else is trivia.

~ Dee Hock

I now believe this without question: Income, position, the opinions of one’s friends, the judgments of one’s peers, and all the other traditional criteria by which human beings are judged are for the birds. The only question is — can you hang on through the crap they throw at you and not lose your freedom or your good sense.

~ James Michener

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. 

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

If someone in your life talked to you the way you talk to yourself, you would have left them long ago.

~ Carla Gordon

Self Reliance.
I will gladly listen to the advice of older and wiser people; I will reverence the wishes of those who love and care for me; but I will learn to think for myself. I will not be afraid of being laughed at. I will not be afraid of doing right when the crowd does wrong.

~ William J. Hutchins, The National Institution of Moral Instructions, 1913