All the statistics in the world can't
   measure the warmth of a smile.

"Passion, though a bad regulator,
is a powerful spring."
                                                 – Ralph Waldo Emerson

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson helped spark the transcendentalist movement with the essay Nature, which described his belief in the spiritual essence of humanity and the natural world. He was born in Boston in 1803. He was a Unitarian minister until he resigned in 1832 to become a philosopher and writer. He suffered the untimely deaths of many of his loved ones: three brothers, his first wife at age 20, and his eldest son at age five. Emerson died in 1882.

"We make a living by what we get,
  we make a life by what we give."
                                              – Sir Winston Churchill

"Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different."
                                                           – Katherine Mansfield

About Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield was the pen name of short story writer Katherine Beauchamp, who is best known for her collection The Garden Party. Born in New Zealand in 1888, she moved to England as a young woman and became friends with writers such as Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence. Her writing style was influenced by Anton Chekhov; like him, she focused on intimate moments that revealed character. She in turn influenced a generation of short story writers. She died in 1923 of tuberculosis.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."
                                                                   – Helen Keller

"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."
                                                                    – e. e. cummings

About e. e. cummings

The writer who became known as e. e. cummings was an experimental poet whose idiosyncratic typography complements the music of his poetry; he published more than 900 poems, two novels, and four plays. He was also an accomplished painter. He was born in Massachusetts in 1894 and entered the ambulance corps in World War I but ended up in a detention camp after expressing his pacifist views. He died in 1962. "In Just-" was his most famous poem.

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T.S. Eliot

Don't ever be afraid to
admit you were wrong.
It's like saying you're
wiser today than you
were yesterday.

"I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often."

"No work is insignificant. All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
                                  – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself."
– Isak Dinesen

About Isak Dinesen

Isak Dinesen was the pen name of Karen Blixen, the Danish author famously portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film of her best-selling memoir, Out of Africa. She was born near Copenhagen in 1885. In 1914, she and her new husband moved to Kenya to run a coffee plantation. She stayed on after divorcing her husband ten years later, living an unusually independent life. Her book of stories, Seven Gothic Tales, sold well, but Out of Africa made her a worldwide success. She died in 1962.

"The world stands aside to let anyone pass who knows where he is going."
– David Starr Jordan

About David Starr Jordan

David Starr Jordan, a scientist, educator, author, and ichthyologist, was best known for his work as a peace activist. He was the president of Indiana University from 1885 until 1891, when he became the first president of Stanford University. He coauthored The Fishes of North and Middle America and served on international commissions for fisheries. Later in his career, Jordan became involved in the quest for international peace and served as director of the World Peace Foundation from 1910 to 1914. He died in 1931.

"Don't let other people tell you what you want."
                                                           – Pat Riley

About Pat Riley

Legendary American sports coach Pat Riley, the three-time NBA Coach of the Year, was drafted by both NBA and NFL teams when he graduated from college. He was born in 1945 in New York. He played with the LA Lakers on their championship-winning 1972 team and retired in 1976, becoming an assistant coach to the same team in 1980. The 1981–82 season began badly, so management fired his boss and promoted Riley, who took the Lakers to the first of their four championships under his guidance. In 1995, Riley resigned from the Knicks and became the head coach of the Miami Heat, advancing the team to the finals for the first time in francise history. He stepped down as head coach in 2008, but still serves as President of the team.

Don't be afraid to fail.
  Be afraid not to try.
 

We each need to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly."
                                       By Shakti Gawain

About Shakti Gawain

American New Age author Shakti Gawain was born in 1948. Raised by atheists who taught her to question everything, she went through an existential crisis after a romantic breakup, which led her on a pilgrimage to India. Her experiences inspired the book Creative Visualization, which became an international best seller. She has been featured in Time magazine and has appeared on such shows as Oprah, Good Morning Americav and The Larry King Show. She currently lives in California with her husband Jim Burns.

With Respect & Gratitude,
                Tom
       http://aronbestsellers.com

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
                                 – Winston Churchill

About Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill was an extraordinary British prime minister; he laid the groundwork for welfare in England, helped set the boundaries in the Middle East, became a symbol of the resistance against the Nazis in Europe, and was a central force in the Allied victory in World War II. He was born in 1874 near Oxford. He was known for his courage, his stubbornness, and his powerful personality. He was also an accomplished painter and writer. He died in 1965.

"The critical ingredient is getting off your butt
and doing something. It's as simple as that. A
lot of people have ideas, but there are few
who decide to do something about them now.
Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The
true entrepreneur is a doer."
- Nolan Bushnell
                

 

"If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better."
                                                                    – Jane Austen

About Jane Austen

Jane Austen (1775-1817), the British writer whose sparkling, socially incisive novels remain extremely popular two centuries after her death, is best known for Pride and Prejudice, which she called her "own darling child." She started writing solely for her own family, and her novels, including Sense and Sensibility and Emma, were initially published anonymously (or "By a Lady"). Nevertheless, she won fame later in life, and she earned the high honor of burial in Winchester Cathedral after her death in 1817 at age 41.

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will."
                  – George Bernard Shaw

About George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw, the witty British playwright best known for Arms and the Man and Pygmalion, is the only person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award. He was born in Dublin in 1856 but moved to London in the 1870s to begin his literary career. He wrote five novels, all rejected, before becoming a music critic; he began writing plays after a stint as drama critic. He was an outspoken Democratic Socialist; his plays include highly political prefaces. He died in 1950.

The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled."
                                                               Plutarch

About Plutarch

Plutarch, the Greek historian who penned more than 46 anecdote-laced biographies of famous Greek and Roman figures in his Parallel Lives series of books, was more interested in exploring the influence of character on a man's personal destiny than in writing dry histories. He was born in Greece during Roman rule, most likely in the year 46. He traveled extensively through the Roman Empire, finally returning home to become a priest of Apollo at the Oracle of Delphi. He died in the year 120.