I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. --Henry David Thoreau (in Seven Sisters with 80 Rupees in 1959)

When you play chess, all your pieces have a clear purpose. Just like in life. You have to make sure you make the right move at the right time. --Ronald Jackson, 15 (in Playing the Smart Move)

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars. --Henry Van Dyke (in Come Out And Play!)

Life is a gift of nature; but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom. --Greek Adage (in 1 Piece of Advice)

You know, no one's sad when company's coming. I have memories of company coming to my parents' home and all of us getting well-dressed and anticipating good food. That's the atmosphere I try to create, to always feel festive about our daily life. --Vimala Rajendran (in Vimala Cooks. Everybody Eats.)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia (in The Man Who Dined with His Mugger)

Life is the sum of what you focus on. --Winifred Gallagher (in How To Lead A Focused Life)

The art of awareness is the art of learning how to wake up to the eternal miracle of life with its limitless possibilities. --Wilfred Peterson (in Wake Up Economics)

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. --Buddha (in The Altruism of Economics)

One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others. --Lewis Carroll (in The Blue Sweater)

We have thousands of opportunities every day to be grateful: for having good weather, to be able to sit in such a beautiful room on such comfortable furniture, to have slept well last night, to be able to get up, to be healthy, to have enough to eat. ... There's opportunity upon opportunity to be grateful; that's what life is. --Brother David Steindl-Rast (in A Retired Teacher's Letters of Gratitude)

All those details, meetings, appointments, tasks, and obligations can be recognized as the colorful paper, wrappings, and trappings that surround subtler gifts. Understood in this way, each busy life can provide a steady supply of hidden presents. --Richard Powell (in The Joy of Less)

Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others? --Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (in Trickle-down Eggersnomics)

When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. --Maya Angelou (in Why Fiction Can Be Good For You)

That best portion of a good man's life; His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love. --William Wordsworth (in How To Do A Million Good Deeds)

The technologies which have had the most profound effects on human life are usually simple. --Freeman Dyson (in When A Phone Is Not Just A Phone)

Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary. --Sir James M. Barrie (in Kind Acts on Sticky Notes)

Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging. --Joseph Campbell (in They Call Him Crutch)

Life is a celebration of awakenings, of new beginnings, and wonderful surprises that enlighten the soul. --Cielo (in The 'Putpocketers' of London)

To appreciate beauty; to give of one's self, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived -- that is to have succeeded. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (in A Snowballing of Generosity)

Each of us has a spark of life inside us, and our highest aspiration ought to be to set off that spark in one another. --Mark Albion (in True to Yourself)

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of oneself to others. --Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (in Giving Anonymously)

You can't always be happy, but you can almost always be profoundly aware and curious, and reap the psychological and physical benefits. Thankfully, curiosity is not a fixed characteristic. It's a strength we can develop and wield on the path to a more fulfilling life. --Todd Kashdan (in Wired To Wonder)

There are some truths about life that can be expressed only as stories, or songs, or images. Art delights, instructs, consoles. It educates our emotions. --Dana Gioia (in Arts And Smarts)

Don't be content in your life just to do no wrong. Be prepared every day to try and do some good. --Sir Nicolas Winton (in Holocaust 'Children' Meet Their 100-Year-Old Hero)

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. --Winston Churchill (in The Philanthropist Autorickshaw-driver)

All of life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. --Martin Luther King Jr. (in A Lighthouse Keeper's Message In A Bottle)

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others. --Robert A. Heinlein (in The Landlord Who Would Not Evict)

One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life. --E.M. Forster (in An Experiment In Trust)

Taking in the good is not about putting a happy shiny face on everything, nor is it about turning away from the hard things in life. It's about nourishing inner well-being, contentment, and peace -- refuges to which you can always return. --Rick Hanson (in Taking In The Good)

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity. --Buddha (in Nanny & CNN Hero: Marie da Silva)

Happiness is not so much in having as sharing. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. --Norman MacEwan (in Cleaning Shoes, Making A Difference)

If nothing else, my life has taught me one thing: The mind and body that I have are the only mind and body that I have. They deserve my attention. And when I give it, I receive so much more in return. --Matthew Sanford (in The Power of the Mind Body Connection)

Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively, unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence. --Eleanor Roosevelt (in A 90,000 Mile Motorcycle Journey)

What do we live for if not to make life less difficult for each other? --George Eliot (in Food Bank Robbery Triggers Generosity)

Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom. --Walter Benjamin (in The Elder Wisdom Circle)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia (in The Power of An Open Heart)

Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain. --Helen Keller (in Flying On One Engine)

Believe with all your heart that how you live your life makes a difference. --Colin Beavan (in 10 Ways To Make a Difference)

Life is a gift of nature; but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom. --Greek Adage (in 70 Words of Wisdom for 2010)

Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin. --Grace Hansen (in Life With A Little More Music)

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live. --Samuel Johnson (in Fortune That Made Him Miserable)

To know the brain is equivalent to ascertaining the material course of thought and will, to discovering the intimate history of life in its perpetual duel with external forces. --Santiago Ramón y Cajal (in iBrain: Mobile Communication Device in Your Head)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia (in What Makes Couples Happy?)

Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being. --Carl Jung (in Art from Ashes)

If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask. --Albert Einstein (in Asking Better Questions)

I have a personal philosophy in life: kindness begets kindness. --Drew Johnson (in 48 States in 48 Weeks)

Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one. --Stella Adler (in The Man Who Carved Statues)

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong. --Joseph Chilton Pierce (in How Innovation Happens)

Retire from work, but not from life. --M.K. Soni (in The Encore Generation)