For years I’ve saved quotes about friendship and motherhood, fear and failure, life, love, and laughter. I find them on the internet, in books and greeting cards. What I like about the quotes I save is that they get to the heart of something important in life – they speak truth to me, truth to anyone.

I would love to have a single wall devoted entirely to framed quotes of every kind, but one wall wouldn’t be enough to hold them all. I would need one wall for love quotes and one for writerly quotes, another devoted to family, still another covered in ancient wisdom…but if I did that, my husband would think I’d gone off the edge and he probably wouldn’t come home.

But I should get them out of the notebooks and computer files and display a handful here and there in a more acceptable, decorative, house-wifey way. That’s for a future project. Right now I want to share a few of them with you. (For sayings with more of a country feel, see this post and this one, too.)

Here are ten of my favorite quotes:

A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves. ~ Amelia Earhart

Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

The scariest moment is always just before you start. ~ Stephen King

The feeling of being hurried is not usually the result of living a full life and having no time. It is on the contrary born of a vague fear that we are wasting our life. When we do not do the one thing we ought to do, we have no time for anything else – we are the busiest people in the world. ~ Eric Hoffer

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. ~ Thomas A. Edison

Find the work you love and do it, and you will not work another day of your life. ~ Confucius

Old age is that night of life, as night is the old age of day. Still night is full of magnificence and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day. ~ Anne Sophie Swetchine

The most wasted of days is one without laughter. ~ E.E. Cummings

Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it. ~ J. Petit Senn

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope. ~ Maya Angelou

What is your favorite quote or saying that has made a difference in your life?