All high achievers plan their work and work their plan, for they are
keenly aware that "luck" is most often being prepared to take
advantage of a situation.

Great is the road I climb, but the garland offered by an easier
effort is not worth the gathering.

-- Sextus Propertius (50BC-16AD) Roman Poet

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets
up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The
saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world,
himself a light.

-- Felix Adler

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to
do.

-- Epictetus (55-135 AD) Greek Philosopher

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true
nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

-- Hindu proverb

When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced
courses of action you should take - choose the bolder.

-- W.J. Slim

Those who, relying upon themselves only, not looking for assistance
to anyone besides themselves, it is they who will reach the top-most
height.

-- Buddha

The nearest way to glory -- a shortcut, as it were -- is to strive to
be what you wish to be thought to be - quoted in Cicero, 44 BC

Dare Greatly!
It is not he critic who counts nor the man who points out how the strong man tumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better, the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat!

Theodore Roosevelt

It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected
of him.

-- John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American Novelist