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An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in.

Charles Kettering

Failure is an inescapable part of the journey to achieving something great — whether it’s a personal goal, an academic standard, or, for American engineer and inventor Charles Kettering, the next big patent. Known for such inventions as the electrical starting motor and leaded gasoline (among others), Kettering understood that a good innovator can — and should — fail as many times as necessary on the way to success.

Let everything you do be done in love.

Corinthians 16:14

Written around 53 CE, the Bible’s First Epistle to the Corinthians was originally a letter authored by the apostle Paul to the Christian church in the city of Corinth, in modern-day Greece. In the epistle, Paul urged these early followers of Jesus to be united in their faith, stand strong, and to always speak and act through the filter of radical, unconditional love.

The ability to learn is the most important quality a leader can have.

Sheryl Sandberg

In her popular 2013 book Lean In, which shines a light on the importance of women in leadership positions, Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg presents the ideal attributes of a good leader. For Sandberg, there is nothing more valuable to an organization — be it a school, family, or Fortune 500 company — than when the people in positions of power can humble themselves enough to listen, learn, and digest new information.

Love and sacrifice are closely linked, like the sun and the light. We cannot love without suffering and we cannot suffer without love. St. Gianna Beretta Molla

I can't give you a recipe for success, but I can give you a recipe for failure: try to please everybody.

Frank Langella

Frank Langella is a much-lauded American actor, performing on stage and screen since the 1960s. His list of accolades is long and distinguished; most recently, he earned an Academy Award nomination for his role as Richard Nixon in the 2008 film Frost/Nixon. In 2012, Langella published a memoir titled Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women As I Knew Them, which shared his experiences living among the elite figures of show business. In an interview about the book, Langella was asked if he liked being the center of attention, and he replied that his attitude has shifted with age. After decades in the spotlight, he’s learned an important lesson: “You should live your life as you wish.”

The ultimate luxury in life remains nature.

Robert Rabensteiner

After spending two decades at L’Uomo Vogue — the menswear counterpart to Vogue Italia — Robert Rabensteiner is now the fashion editor-at-large for Condé Nast’s Italian division. Part of his job is appraising runway collections in New York, Paris, London, and Milan, his primary residence. Yet some of his most cherished trips, to a remote chalet near his hometown in the Austrian Alps, are far less elaborate. Hidden deep in the forest, the chalet is only accessible by riding a chairlift, then taking a half-hour trek. When his mother died, Rabensteiner sought refuge in the house and, more so, its calm setting. With this quote, he speaks to a feeling shared by so many of us: that the connection to nature offers an unparalleled source of wonder, healing, and joy.

The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it.

Chief Joseph

In 1879, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé, who was known to his own people as In-mut-too-yah-lat-lat (Thunder-Traveling-Over-the-Mountains), traveled to Washington, D.C., to negotiate the return of his homeland, a swath of North America that spanned from the Bitterroot Mountains of western Montana to the Wallowas of eastern Oregon. While he was visiting, he granted an interview to reporters and began by saying, “My friends, I have been asked to show you my heart.” What followed was a passionate polemic for equality, circling back over and over again to the idea that all men are brothers, and should have equal rights on Earth. Almost 150 years later, it is an idea that remains worth fighting for.

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

Joan Didion

In her 1961 essay "On Self-Respect," writer and cultural icon Joan Didion laid out one of the most essential truths about self-love. When we are accountable for our words and actions — and act with integrity even in the face of adversity — we are far more likely to find pride, confidence, and respect for ourselves. Taking responsibility is not always easy, but it’s a worthy pursuit. As Didion wrote, “people with self-respect exhibit a certain toughness, a kind of moral nerve; they display what was once called character.”

The gratification comes in the doing, not in the results.


James Dean

An emblem of Hollywood’s Golden Age, actor James Dean found critical and commercial success in a career cut short by his accidental death at age 24 in 1955. But despite his iconic image and global fame, the "Rebel Without a Cause" star reflected that he derived the greatest satisfaction from the work itself, not the fruits of that labor. It’s a sentiment so often echoed by those who have achieved fame that it’s worth taking to heart: The journey to success is often just as fulfilling as the final destination.

To see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.


Georgia O’Keeffe

Famous for her abstract, closeup paintings of flowers, modernist artist Georgia O’Keeffe was a master of perception and vision. In an excerpt from a 1944 exhibition catalog, she wrote about how the beauty, detail, and value of something simple like a flower often goes overlooked in our busy lives. She wrote, "I'll paint what I see — what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it." In other words, to fully appreciate the good things in life — from the beauty of nature to the joy of friendship — we have to take time to notice them, by choosing to give them our full attention.