Amy Poehler

Great people do things before they’re ready.

Women talk about stuff on the way to the valet that it takes men 10 years to admit to each other. The depth at which women talk to and about each other is invaluable to me. With your really, really close good friends you do that fast.

I really do believe that anything in life – any obstacle or challenge – can be made better with humor.

[on her mother] she’s a very smart, independent woman who was kind of coming into her own in the feminist movement of the 70s and 80s

The streets and woods around my house were a perfect setting for fake mischief. I would spend all afternoon pretending I had run away and had to live on my own. I would bring Toll House cookies and a sweatshirt and try to make a fire. I would sneak out side my house at dusk with a pair binoculars and search the streets for murderers. I created scenarios in my head that I always managed to escape from kidnap fantasies where I would wriggle free from the ropes.

You have to care about how good you are and how good you feel, but not about how good people think you are or how good people think you look.

When you make a promise, keep it.

The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.

I like to think of the word FOCUS as Follow One Course Until Successful.

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.

Excellence is attained when you care more than others think is wise; risk more than others think is safe; dream more than others think is practical; expect more than others think is possible.

Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.

The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of tolerance comes when we are in the majority.

When I became proficient as a salesman I was invited to teach new hires.

I believe in the Golden Rule. The Man with the Gold, Rules.

You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.

All men are created equal. No matter how hard they try, they can never erase those words. That is what America is about.

One does not always do the best there is. One does the best one can. – Catherine the Great

He climbs highest who helps another up.

Thought is useful when it motivates for action, and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.