THIS IS YOUR PEP TALK.

Ok, so this is more about me than about you. I have an interview on Friday and need to pump myself up. So, here they are, my most admittedly lengthy and sentimental, but most stirring and non-generic (if you can dream it you can do it), non-inane (shoot for the moon, you'll land among the stars), and non-sappy (live, love, laugh) quotes of all time.

I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, ok.-Madonna

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, 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 the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; 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 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 or defeat.-Theodore Roosevelt



One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.- Maya Angelou

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.-George Bernard Shaw



For when you are feeling really down:

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-Lord Alfred Tennyson

And perhaps the best and most simple:

Never, ever, ever give up-Michael Scott