Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

Nelson Mandela

As the crickets’ soft autumn hum
is to us
so are we to the trees
as are they
to the rocks and the hills

Gary Snyder

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.

Oscar Wilde

I don’t count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting because they’re the only ones that count.

Muhammad Ali

Hat man sein Warum des Lebens, so verträgt man sich fast mit jedem Wie.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Believe one who knows: you will find something greater in woods than in books.  Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters.

Saint Bernard de Clairvaux

There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

Nelson Mandela

It is just like man’s vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions.

Mark Twain