Catherine the Great

Madame, you must be gay; only thus can life be endured. I speak from experience for I have had to endure much, and have only been able to endure it because I have always laughed whenever I had the chance.

I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them.

Tell a thousand people to draft a letter, let them debate every phrase, and see how long it takes and what you get.

I like to praise and reward in a loud voice and to scold in a whisper.

A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache.

If Russians knew how to read they would write me off.

It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.

Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.

First comes the shy wish. Then you must have the heart to have the dream. Then, you work, and work.

Courage is facing your fears. Stupidity is fearing nothing.

No matter where you are in life, you’ll save a lot of time by not worrying too much about what other people think about you. The earlier in your life that you can learn that, the easier the rest of it will be.

Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.

No wise man ever wished to be younger.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

Don’t underestimate yourself or your possibilities.

If you’re going to have to swallow a frog, you don’t want to have to look at that sucker too long!

Living your words, walking your talk, and talking your walk.

You were designed for accomplishment, engineered for success, and endowed with the seeds of greatness.

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.

But until a person can say deeply and honestly, ‘I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday’, that person cannot say, ‘I choose otherwise’.