TDR’s observation reminds me of one of Jack Dempsey’s: “Champions get up when they can’t.”

Here is a collection of other quotes provided by Kyle Ingham to which I have added a few of my own favorites.

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If you want to become a better person, it makes sense to start by studying the lives and words of great persons who’ve lived before you. When you examine their observations, you see some interesting trends emerge:

First, many see their success stemming from simply persevering. Not succeeding at the first try—far from it—but pushing forward even when they’re facing failure.

Second, they show us the importance of mastering the “inner game”—taming their own minds and reframing situations so they could continue to fight, innovate, or just keep charging ahead.

Third, they show us that a person earns little by trying to be better than someone else: as Churchill so eloquently says, true gains happen when a man is challenged to be better than his former self…while still being gracious to his fellow man.

And finally, it’s clear that great people truly embrace the habit of taking action.

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“Life is either a great adventure or nothing.” Helen Keller

“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.” William Shakespeare

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Henry David Thoreau

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Courage is grace under pressure.” Ernest Hemingway

“Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.” Theodore Roosevelt

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” Tim Ferriss

“Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.” Dale Carnegie

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” Norman Vincent Peale

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” Mohandas Gandhi

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain

“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

“It takes a great man to be a good listener.” Calvin Coolidge

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” Mark Twain

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” Pablo Picasso

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” Babe Ruth

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Eleanor Roosevelt

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Twain

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Lao Tzu

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

“Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it.”  Voltaire

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Kyle Ingham is the Founder and Editor of The Distilled Man. He enjoys Bourbon, burritos and the occasional pirate joke. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife.

My favorite anthology — one that seems to be the most reliable in terms of attribution — is The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred Shapiro.