Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself.

Dostoevsky

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

Thoreau

Nothing can make our life, or the lives of other people, more beautiful than perpetual kindness.

Tolstoy

Good fortune becomes calamity, calamity becomes good fortune; their transformations are limitless, so profound they cannot be fathomed.

Liu An, King of Huainan